Negotiating language in a deaf classroom in Myanmar: lessons for mother tongue education

Abstract

This article reflects on mother-tongue education (MTE) and its capacity to promote equality for linguistic minorities. It is argued that the current literature focuses disproportionately on the linguistic and pedagogic details of MTE programmes, while overlooking the unequal power relations that underpin inequality. The paper reports on the experiences of teachers and deaf alumni from the Mary Chapman School for the Deaf in Myanmar, where the local sign language, Yangon Sign Language (YSL), is now used as the primary medium of instruction. Reflecting on some of the challenges of teaching in YSL, the paper shows how the gradual and often fraught process of adopting YSL as the language of instruction appears to have engendered a new cultural politics at the school, whereby teachers enter into dialogue and negotiation with students in order to teach effectively. This alternative ‘dialogic’ solution to the challenges of MTE disrupts traditional hierarchies, creating an egalitarian learning environment and inspiring a new critical consciousness amongst students. In conclusion, it is argued that if MTE, and other forms of minority education, are to promote equality, they should be located within a broader project of democratisation in which students and teachers can negotiate relations of power.

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