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HOW DO DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING STUDENTS EXPERIENCE LEARNING TO WRITE USING SIGNWRITING, A WAY TO READ AND WRITE SIGNS?

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CECILIA MARY FLOOD B.A., Child Study, St. Joseph College, New York, 1972 M.A., Deaf Education, Western Maryland College, 1976 M.S., Counseling Education, Long Island University: C.W.Post, 1983

Doctor of Philosophy Educational Linguistics

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY This chapter outlines the inquiry process commencing with a rationale for the selection of a community based action research design. Following the inquiry goal statement, the inquiry process is explained, and includes a description of the setting, the identification of research stakeholders, the position of the researcher, the inquiry time line, and the collection process of the triangulated data that was recorded, analyzed, and interpreted. The final section will discuss the inquiry criteria associated with interpretive qualitative research. The methods chapter will conclude with an acknowledgement of inquiry limitations. Rationale for Community Based Action Research How do Deaf and Hard of Hearing1 (DHH) students experience learning to write using SignWriting, a way to read and write signs? There are two terms in the inquiry question that ground the inquiry in a naturalistic research design paradigm: how and experience. The inquiry question dictates the use of qualitative rather than quantitative research methods because the question is neither deductive nor theory driven but rather inductive and data driven (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984). Qualitative research uses individuals as the primary research tools, incorporating value systems of both individuals and researcher. The interaction of sets of unique experiences, including those of the researcher, is expected to produce differences that inform cultural understanding, and not variables that need to be controlled (Guba & Lincoln, 1985).
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Capitalized letters is a writing convention used to identify the cultural identity...