Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Presentations and other scholarship Faculty & Staff Scholarship 5-11-2020 Deaf Research Dissensus: Conflicts of Theory and Practice. Michael E. Skyer Rochester Institute of Technology Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/other Recommended Citation Skyer, Michael E., "Deaf Research Dissensus: Conflicts of Theory and Practice." (2020). Accessed from https://scholarworks.rit.edu/other/1001 This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty & Staff Scholarship at RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Presentations and other scholarship by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact ritscholarworks@rit.edu. DISSENSUS Michael E. Skyer PhD Candidate – University of Rochester Senior Lecturer – National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology Invited Talk at the behest of Dr. Matthew Dye – SPaCE Center & deaf x Lab National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (Via Zoom) Monday, May 11th , 2020 Full text online: https://www.academia.edu/37112484/ STRUCTURE § A philosophical framework for understanding dissensus in deaf research § Conflicts undergirding dissensus in deaf education research § Theoretical approaches to conflictmitigation regarding dissensus in deaf education research § Insufficient Research and Theory on Vision in Deaf Pedagogy Dissensus Methodological approaches to conflictmitigation regarding dissensus in deaf education research Deficit ideologies that frustrate progress § References and resources for inquiry Researchers and practitioners have different goals, needs, methods Theoretical obstruction: obscurity of vision PHILOSOPHY: Core Problem: Deafness breeds dissent – durable, structural conflicts disconnect researchers from teachers and deaf individuals from education and society. The lack of empirical research and empirical-driven theory on deaf visual pedagogy can directly harm deaf children in schools. § In 1920, Vygotsky described deaf pedagogy theory and practice as unsystematic and implored change. One hundred years later, Swanwick and Marschark (2010) call our work unsuccessful. § Dissensus is manifested in the obstruction of productive theory; however, dissensus gives clarity relative to problems of axiology— § the ethics and aesthetics which regulate power in deaf education and research about it. § Deaf educational theorists need to develop ways to decipher the how and why of deaf visual pedagogy (Cawthon & Garberglio, 2017; p. ix) § “without an adequate research base, there cannot be effective practice. Without an understanding of the needs in deaf education, there cannot be research that supports effective practice." (p. xii). PHILOSOPHY: Dissensus is a tool of philosophy useful for analyzing conflicts of power, in terms of political participation in democratic societies (Rancière, 2010; Ziarek, 2001). Analysis is achieved through comparing different sensory distributions, examining discursive conflicts, and analyzing power struggles (Concorran & Rancière, 2010). § Dissensus has two functions: 1) The AGONISTIC function allows us to recognize and name conflicts by revealing problems and making them available for inquiry. § § the politics of the sensible § the distribution of power § o antonym of consensus. 2) The CONTRASTIVE function allows us to compare and contrast divergent worldviews by placing together oppositional stances. o literally means two senses, brought together. Dissensus marks conflicts arising from competing ideologies in debates of science and philosophy. In deaf research, these conflicts are: Conflicts arise from contrasting values: § diversity in professional orientations, disciplinary foci, paradigmatic variations, and researcher positionality. § Dissensus also allows us to generate new meaning by comparing and contrasting worldviews. Dissensus reveals conflicts about axiology: § valuation, ethics, bioethics, and aesthetics. CONFLICTS: Disagreements about value delimit our knowledge about senses, cognition, discourse, and power. Unresolved conflicts constrain researchers, educators, and deaf students and exacerbate already complex, extant problems related to deaf learning (e.g: deaf bilingualism, deaf multimodality, and vision in deaf pedagogy). § Axiological conflict in deaf research leads to "a nearly insurmountable gap between researchers and practitioners" (Easterbrooks, 2017, p. 25). § Structural problems: § Example 1: Bifurcating the discursive coin: Communication and Language § marginal research on visual discourses in teaching § divergent sensory distributions = power disparity § sparse research about aesthetic and ethical values in research methodologies and teaching methods § Obstruction of progress: • • • • lack of strengths-based educational research no general theory of vision in deaf pedagogy no vetted resources for using deaf visual pedagogy no replicable methods for analyzing visual pedagogy *Sacks, not Marschark, is correct in his classification. CONFLICTS: Researchers and pedagogues invested in deaf education are divided by conflicts of value. Unresolved ruptures in the axiology of deaf research preclude progress, stymie disciplinary innovation, and contribute to underwhelming academic achievement. § Teaching suffers: § a lack of understanding about axiological values informing the practices of deaf deaf pedagogues § emergent potentiality of deaf-centric research on visual discourses in pedagogy. § Research suffers: § insufficient theory about teaching and § underdeveloped theory about pedagogical praxis using visual modes. § Learning suffers: § exacerbates already-complex problems related to how deaf student learning is conceptualized and researched. • Example 2: Graphic representation of Modality as Pendulum (From Lou, 1988, p. 76) THEORY: § Vision delimits deaf pedagogy Vision acts as a boundary: § Vision, not hearing, delimits learning and teaching. Vision is comprehensible and fosters bilingual transfer via modal transduction (multimodal translanguaging). Research does not show: § how educators use it, why they use it, how they evaluate it, or how to empirically measure it § § Garcia & Cole, 2014; Kress, 2011; Kusters, et al. 2017; Sutherland & Rogers, 2014 Dissensus is productive: § Dissensus collocates distal world-views to productively analyze conflicts. The “distribution of the sensible” introduces aesthetics in relation to power in deaf visual pedagogy using visual discourses and tools. § § Ranciere, 2010; Reagan, 2011; Roots, 1999; Wrigley, 1996 Growing theory: Construction of new theory is imperative Problems = Opportunities Dissensus is a critical mode of thought § There exists an urgent need for a positive, creative pedagogy inclusive to nonlinguistic modes of discourse that centralize vision in deaf research and teaching; leveraging visual strengths in biosocial interaction. § (e.g. cognition, literacy, learning, language, signacy, etc.) § Bauman & Murray, 2014; Easterbrooks, 2017; Kuntze et al, 2014; Vygotsky, 1993; Wang, 2010 synthesis of theory = sensitizing concepts to open inquiry THEORY: § Postulates from Dissensus in Deaf Research § Visual images, like languages, generate power; that power can be productive or destructive in deaf education. § § A positive and creative deaf pedagogy capacitates deaf students’ based on their visual strengths. § § Cherryholmes, 1999; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006; Ranciere, 2010 Bauman & Murray, 2014; Raike, Pylvänen, & Rainò 2014; Vygotsky, 1993 Deaf-centric research methods must be designed for educational inquiries that explicitly value vision in teaching and learning (e.g. ocularcentricity, multimodality, translanguaging) § Kress, 2010; Sutherland & Rogers, 2014; Skyer 2020 METHODOLOGY/METHODS: Deaf education & visual aesthetics Deaf gains in visual communication Visual power in deaf pedagogy Co-designed visual aesthetics in learning and teaching Case studies demonstrate how deaf educators in teacher preparation programs use aesthetic principles in curriculum design and interactive discourse environments. •“research in [co-design] lacks examination of the relation between Deaf people and interfaces in their social context, that is, how Deaf people constitute meanings in relation to their social milieu, how these meanings affect the aesthetics of these interactions, and how to organize results in a way that reflects the world as deaf people perceive it” (Raike et al. 2009; 2014, p. 404) Designing visual discourses and tools • Interviews, design workshops, and user-interface rubrics highlight the beneficent potentiality of visual, spatial, and embodied discourses as deaf educational resources. •“in addition to the extensive research on visual cognition there were certain psychological and social benefits of deaf signers documented, such as the benefits related to interpersonal relationships originating from the maintaining of eye-contact, or embodiment of reciprocity when together with others navigating through space” (Matiouk (2016) p. 1123, citing Bauman and Murray, 2014, among many others) Modulating power with vision in deaf education/cultural spaces • Classroom observations analyze how deaf educators empower students with emic cultural practices centered on visual modes and literacies. •“with bio-power, the optical is invested with an ability to govern and control quite apart from its relation to the senses” (Davidson, 2008, p. 178) (c.f. Humprhries & MacDougall 1999/2000; Kuntze et al (2014) METHODOLOGY/METHODS: Deaf-centric methodologies for reaching teaching are sparsely represented in deaf ed. The following images synthesize a (multimethod) qualitative methodology using case study and grounded theory research designs. Unit of Analysis: Interactions and Definition of Cases (right) Methods (left) DEAF RESEARCH DISSENSUS & VISION § Dissensus as problem § Conflicts create power differentials that (historically) disadvantage deaf learners, disempower teachers, and inadequately support researchers. § Dissensus as opportunity § Analyzing dissensus generates new productive powers for research, teaching, and learning, especially in domains that have been hidden by conflict, such as visual aesthetics and the ethics of deaf pedagogy. § As Vygotsky (1993) reminds us: § “We must proceed until every elementary teacher can teach even the deaf child and until each elementary school becomes simultaneously a school for the deaf ” (p. 91). § the center of gravity must shift (p. 208). § “These are the practical, theoretical, and methodological challenges of our time, which will be resolved, but only given our enthusiasm, optimism, and creativity” (Skyer, 2020, p. 589). REFERENCES: § Bauman, H-D. L. & Murray, J.J. 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