Winner of the 2013 Outstanding Qualitative Book Award by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. Signs of Hope tells the story of a narrative inquiry with three deafhearing families. For many of us, deafness represents loss and silence. For others, being deaf is a genetic quirk; an opportunity for learning, spiritual adventure and reward. For yet others, it is the most natural thing in the world; a connection to a genealogical layer of signing ancestors and the continuation of a culture. Amid the noise of mainstream, medical and educational discourses of deafness, here are family voices demanding to be heard - whether spoken or signed - that challenge audiological and surgical intervention, that call for scrutiny and critique of 'inclusive' deaf-related pedagogical practices, that rail against marginalisation of members of minority cultures. Over four years, Donna West has recorded the stories of three families who wish to counter and resist what they see as damaging misconceptions and discriminatory constructions of deafness and deafhearing family life. Here, spaces are created that respect and acknowledge human beings - adults, children, deaf, hearing - as storytellers. The poetic and performative narratives at the heart of this book reveal not only the ways in which hurtful definitions of, and discrimination towards, deaf people and signing deafhearing families is destabilised, but also the ways in which celebration of deaf culture and sign language are affirming and vital for healthy family life.
About the Author: Donna West is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bristol's Graduate School of Education. She first trained as an Art teacher before becoming a qualified teacher of deaf children. In 2001, she studied for her MSc in Deaf Studies and then worked at the Centre for Deaf Studies (also at Bristol) as a lecturer in Qualitative Research Methods before gaining her PhD from the Graduate School of Education in 2009. She has published papers on qualitative and poetic inquiry, and on sign language poetry, most recently: West, D. & Sutton-Spence, R. (2012). Shared Thinking Processes with Four Deaf Poets: A Window on the Creative in Creative Sign Language, Sign Language Studies, 12(2); West, D. (2011). Deaf-Hearing Family Life: Three Mothers' Poetic Voices of Resistance, Qualitative Inquiry, 17(8); Sutton-Spence, R., & West, D. (2011). Negotiating the legacy of hearingness, Qualitative Inquiry, 17(5); West, D. (2009). Strong together: Poetic representations of a Deaf-hearing family narrative, in M. Prendergast, C. Leggo, & P. Sameshima (Eds.), Poetic inquiry: Vibrant voices in the social sciences. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.