Recent policy,the numbers game and the schooling of the hearing impaired: a study of one teacher's career |
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| Authors: | George Riseborough |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACT This paper describes and analyses the fate of an educational innovation, namely the mainstreaming of hearing impaired children into a primary school. Set in the context of recent State policy, it is a critical case study of a ‘caring’ organization staffed by ‘professionals’ engaged in work upon children with special needs. The data presented are derived from ethnographic interview with a specially qualified teacher of the hearing impaired. Primarily, it explores the teacher's interaction with her male headteacher, from her perspective. Conflict developed between the two around the meaning of integration, and the use of the hearing impaired children as a resource to preserve the school, at a time of threatened closure. Eventually, there was a polarized antipathy between teacher and head; and a consequent teacher career failure and head career success, resulting in the ultimate resignation of the teacher. As such, the paper is a critique of the socially oppressive schooling of those children deemed to have special needs. |
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