To Örebro University

Different technologies are commonly used in mainstream classrooms to teach pupils who wear surgically implanted cochlear hearing aids. We focus on these technologies, their application, how pupils react to them, and how they affect mainstream classrooms in Sweden. Our findings indicate that language ideologies play out in specific ways in such technified environments. The hegemonic position wielded by adults with regard to the use of technology usage has specific implications for pupils with cochlear implants.

This thesis examines technological framings for communication and identity issues, with a particular focus on Swedish mainstream schools where children with cochlear implants are pupils. Based on a sociocultural perspective on learning, the thesis focuses on how pupils and teachers interact with (and thus learn from) each other in classroom settings. The study comprises a) a sociohistorical analysis of three Swedish non-governmental organizations’ periodicals from 1891 to 2010, and b) an ethnographic study including micro-analyses of interaction in two mainstream classrooms where there are children with cochlear implants. The sociohistorical analysis illustrates how different technologies, in a range of ways, have shaped (i) how people with hearing loss communicate and interact with others and (ii) their identity positions. The analysis also demonstrates the presence of language ideologies in settings where children with hearing loss are taught. Here the main preference is for spoken communication, even though different types of visual communication emerge during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, the issue of integration has been a matter of debate since the 1970s and provides a backdrop for the current situation, where an increasing number of children with cochlear implants receive their schooling in mainstream public rather than segregated regional deaf schools.

Against this background, micro-analyses have been carried out of classroom interaction and recurring patterns and activities have been identified. The results illustrate that audiologically-oriented and communicative-link technologies play major roles in the classrooms and these both facilitate and limit the pupils’ participation. Based on postcolonial theory, the results can be understood in terms of participation and non-participation of the pupil with cochlear implants, who acquire peripheral identity positions in these classroom settings. The analysis also illuminates unequal power relations regarding technologies in use, and expressions of language ideologies in the classrooms, where spoken communication is preferred. Overall, the everyday life of children with cochlear implants in mainstream schools appears to be complex, and it is technologies in use that frame the conditions for their participation in interaction and communication.

This article presents results from a study based on archival data from periodicals published by three Swedish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in the field of deafness and hard of hearing. A sociohistorical analysis of the material, which covers more than a century, from 1890 to 2010, highlights that technologies have specifically impacted issues concerned with communication and identity. The article presents key topics that have been identified, as well as similarities and differences between the NGOs with regard to their views on and interest in visually oriented and audiologically oriented technologies and methods of communication. In addition, the analysis shows how deafness, based on different perspectives, can be understood as both identity and disability and how technologies and methods of communication impact identification processes.

Different technologies are commonly used in mainstream classrooms to teach pupils who wear surgically implanted cochlear hearing aids. We focus on these technologies, their application, how pupils react to them, and how they affect mainstream classrooms in Sweden. Our findings indicate that language ideologies play out in specific ways in such technified environments. The hegemonic position wielded by adults with regard to the use of technology usage has specific implications for pupils with cochlear implants.

The number of pupils with cochlear implant (CI) has seen a sharp increase in public schools in Sweden. This study focuses on communicative strategies in inclusive classrooms where pupils with CI are members. The empirical ethnographic data comes from two mainstream classrooms in Sweden where pupils and adults use a range of technologies, and strategies, (co)creating opportunities for communication and learning in everyday classroom life. The analyses indicate that pupils with CIs are responsible for their own communicative participation in mainstream classrooms (when they can't make sense of or don't hear oral talk), while their right to choose or regulate communication channels are not uncommonly curtailed by the adults. Different technologies play an important role in inclusive classrooms where pupils with CIs are members but these at the same time sometimes create barriers for participation. They cannot therefore be seen as a panacea for pupils with CI in inclusive educational settings.