Deaf Student-Interpreter Relationships and Feedback Practices in K-12 Mainstream Deaf Education.

Abstract

This study explores Deaf individuals' and sign language interpreters' perspectives on what it is like to work together in K-12 education. A group of 41 formerly mainstreamed Deaf individuals and interpreters offers insights into interactional dynamics (e.g., the deaf student-interpreter relationship) that influence interpreters' work, deaf students' participation and learning, and feedback practices. This study illustrates the significance of the deaf student-interpreter relationship and suggests a correlation between this relationship and deaf students' participation and positioning in mainstream classrooms. In addition, the findings suggest a correlation between the deaf student-interpreter relationship and feedback practices in mainstream education. Finally, this study finds that deaf students do not always know that they can engage in feedback conversations with interpreters or know how to engage interpreters to ask for what they need to learn. This article concludes with considerations and recommendations for the deaf education and interpreter education communities.