摘要：This study sought to explore how socio-cultural factors impact theimplementation of rights-based education of deaf learners in ordinaryschools. Seventeen purposively sampled participants from twomainstream high schools include the principals, two specialist teachers,eight ordinary teachers and all five deaf students at the schools. Datawere collected from participants using interviews and lessonobservations. Data were analyzed using theme identification methods. Itwas found that even though educational policies asserted the right of deaflearners to mainstream education, teachers implementing such policiesconceptualised deaf learners as deficient and inferior members of thehearing community. Teaching was therefore based on a deficit modelwhich focussed on using a spoken language for instruction. This resultedin procedural engagement in which the deaf learners were reported not tobe learning much. The study also found that even though policy visionwas that mainstream teachers should teach deaf students, the reality in theschools was that teachers had no Sign Language skills. Those teacherswho tried to teach using Sign Language did not have native-like skills inthe language as they did not consult the Deaf community. As a result,their deaf students did not get a solid foundation in Sign Languagethereby weakening their learning of the majority spoken language.Similarly, withdrawing the deaf students to sign to them after themainstream lesson created the impression that the education of thesestudents was remedial rather than normal. Implications of the findings arediscussed in detail in the study.
关键词：inclusion; the excluded; deaf;students; mainstream high;school; Zimbabwe
