Impact case study database

This research addresses the issue of ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ (Sustainable Development Goal, SDG4) through its focus on deaf learners, who are often left behind with respect to their education, and hence their life chances. SDG10 on reducing inequalities is also highly relevant because this research empowers deaf people to take charge of their own learning and facilitates their participation in society. The roots of this impact go back to our ground-breaking BA in Applied Sign Language Studies, which was delivered with a partner university in New Delhi to deaf students from multiple countries of the Global South. Since 2015, nine of these graduates, and seven further young deaf people, have been translating their skills into new educational opportunities for their deaf peers by participating in our research.

Deaf learners: Learning with the Peer-to-Peer Deaf Literacy/Multiliteracies Model

The essence of our approach is that deaf tutors teach their deaf peers, using sign language as a bridge to other literacy and multiliteracies skills. So far, 124 young deaf adults and 79 deaf primary school children at 12 different institutions have directly benefited from the project by taking part in ‘Peer-to-Peer (P2P)’ literacy/multiliteracies classes in India, Ghana and Uganda. To document the learner experience, we launched a documentary film online in February 2019, which has since had 935 views [A]. Four further videos about our work were launched in 2020 [B] where learners expressed how they value and use their increased skills and confidence. Alex Nsabyera, P2P student at Uganda National Association of the Deaf, UNAD says: “ I used to have challenges with self-esteem but now I can use my phone to communicate. If I want to ask the price of anything, I know the spelling for “buying” and “selling”. So, I just have to type that on my phone, as well as the money, how much balance. (…) This is what I can now type on the phone to communicate with the clients. And when they deliver my products, I am able to pay because now I understand how to communicate on the phone.” Rose Nalukwago, tailoring and P2P student at UNAD states: “I had never seen any peer tutoring class elsewhere. (…) I have been taught how to use my phone, it’s very interesting. I even went to buy myself a phone. During the holidays, I looked for where the MTN center is and bought a SIM card. I actually now know the names of places and which places sell phones.” Finally a young woman in a P2P group at Delhi Foundation of Deaf Women said: “I could not sign in front of a camera due to hesitation. The tutor encouraged me to practice signing. I gradually became comfortable in front of the camera. These videos were subsequently used to make SLEND [i.e. online learning platform] content, which were further used by other students across other centres in India (…) The P2P project was a lot of learning for me. Thank you!”

Moreover, our model has been adapted for use in China under a UK-China collaboration programme funded by the British Council. Sign language-based English literacy teaching has been used at Zhengzhou Institute of Technology, which hosts a college for over 600 deaf students. The project has directly benefited a group of 20 learners. Zhang Peng, a Chinese participant, commented on the deaf learners’ perspective after a joint UK-China workshop on English literacy through sign language: “There are not enough functional resources used in the teaching of English in China, and more resources are needed. The workshop improved their confidence to create materials by recording themselves translating from English to Chinese Sign Language.”  [C]

For deaf primary school children, having an accessible linguistic environment is simply transformative. At one of our partner schools, introducing multiliteracies has led to many creative outputs. In a self-produced video on the occasion of International Day of Sign Languages 2019, a girl in Class 3, Happy Hands School for the Deaf, Sindurpur village, Odisha summarised her experience in a drama that included her personal story: “What is the meaning of this word? I didn’t know it, and asked the deaf teacher: What is the meaning of F-A-S-T? The teacher explained it to me by signing, so I can understand better. I dream of being happy to develop, and being intelligent.” [J]

Deaf professionals: Career and skills development for project members

Career and skills development for our deaf research assistants and tutors through involvement with our research has been a top priority and has changed their lives. Two deaf team members from India and from the UK are pursuing PhDs linked to this research. In 2016, our deaf research assistant from Ghana (Nyarko) won the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African leaders [F]. He then completed an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language and gained employment at the University of Ghana as a sign language teacher. In India, six staff members used our research environment as a springboard to other employment joining NGOs and educational and research institutions. This included the central government’s Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre in New Delhi as well as a sign-bilingual senior secondary school programme for deaf students at the National Rehabilitation University in Lucknow. Other deaf people have subsequently benefited from their skills through their work in these contexts. Moreover, we have encouraged deaf staff to undertake their own projects within our research group, and we have supported them throughout the process of data analysis, academic writing, and the peer review process. Four deaf project members (Pal, Manavalamamuni, Ahereza, Nankinga) have written academic articles for publication for the first time [6].

To broaden this impact further, in 2019/20 we also trained 12 deaf people from Uganda, India, and Nepal for six months in the principles and implementation of our Peer-to-Peer Deaf Multiliteracies work, enabling several of them to become master trainers. Noah Aherezea from Uganda sums up the co-creative nature of the training and the use of creative facilitation tools such as Serious Games: “All the tools used here helped activate and draw out our own ideas, and this is very important. When I go back to Uganda, I want to have my own group of trainees and just like here, I will only present one part of the ideas and then use these tools to get all my students to contribute their own ideas.” [E] During and after this capacity building programme, held in India, the team created video lectures in Indian, Ugandan and Nepali Sign Language to resource further training.

Policymakers: Implementation of sign language in educational settings

In 2016, the research team produced a policy report which recommended a qualification for deaf sign language users to become “Language and Literacy Trainers” [G]. Our insight was that qualified deaf professionals were needed in deaf education, as well as the systematic introduction of sign language into educational systems. This has led to several initiatives, including the six-month international capacity building programme mentioned above.

In Uganda, our in-country team engaged with policymakers in education including the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), who have been working with a local NGO partner on developing a syllabus and materials for sign language and deaf education. In a letter to Zeshan in July 2019, Kazinda Generous, Curriculum specialist-in-charge Special Needs Education at the NCDC, notes that: “The partnership between UNAD and the University of Central Lancashire on professionalising the role of (deaf) sign language users in the classroom under “Peer to Peer Deaf Multi-literacies” will support the implementation of the developed materials. We have noted that this research ties in with current efforts in Uganda for the improvement of trained manpower in inclusive education for children with disabilities”; she added that this research: “will fill a gap in the education of deaf children and youth in the country.”[H] A multi-partner advisory committee began a series of meetings in November 2020 to work towards establishing a course for training deaf and sign language using professionals in Uganda.

In India, our research has supported the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to implement Indian Sign Language as a school subject nationally. Zeshan, Panda and Pal are members of the curriculum committee [I]. The curriculum is complete, and our team has created 17 lessons in sign language as well as a textbook in English for the course. A letter from NIOS in May 2020 states: “The deaf sign language users in your project are a unique human resource, and Indian Sign Language as a school subject is an unprecedented innovation (...) NIOS has about 100 special education centres across India to cater to the needs of learners with special educational needs. In addition, NIOS broadcasts educational programmes in sign language via its own satellite television channel Gyanamrit, as well as distributing content via YouTube. Therefore, the initiative for Indian Sign Language as a school subject will have the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of sign language users in India.” [I] This is the first time that Indian Sign Language is set to become available nationally as a school subject at par with spoken Indian languages.

COVID impact statement: The development and introduction of the course has been delayed by COVID, as New Delhi and adjacent areas were hit particularly hard. The NIOS offices were closed for several months, and two planned visits by the Indian research team to NIOS had to be cancelled because of travel restrictions.

Right from the beginning of this work, there has been a major interest in the concept of ‘deaf-led research’, as evidenced, for instance, by the nearly 10,000 views of social media posts about a deaf-led research training week we conducted with 20 participants in India in 2016 [D]. The engagement with policymakers is now moving the goalpost further to ‘deaf-led professional practice’. This has been an aspiration in deaf communities for decades, and our research has added to the evidence base which is necessary in order to make a strong case for self-determination in education.