Boiled Eggs and Baked Beans - a personal account of a hearing researcher's journey through Deaf Culture

Abstract

This article forms a reflexive account of the trials, pains and joys of the launch of a hearing researcher into 'Deaf Culture' - the unique world of British Sign Language (BSL) users. Three resources of reflexive data are utilised; the researcher's experiences of learning BSL with other hearing signers; participant observation data from a Unit for Deaf people with psychiatric problems and finally, experiences of interviewing members of a national organisation of Deaf people. These experiences reflect the assumptions and preconceptions the hearing world holds concerning Deaf people and the remarkable ways in which the latter rationalise them and attempt to subvert them. The intellectual issues addressed here concern the role and status of researchers within foreign settings, the problems of enculturisation and the physical and social effects experienced whilst undertaking this type of research.