Personal Experience Narratives in the Deaf Community: Identifying Deaf-World Typicality by Lesley Davidson April 2017 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of MA (by Research) at the University of Central Lancashire STUDENT DECLARATION FORM Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards *I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution ____________________________________________________________________ Material submitted for another award *I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work ____________________________________________________________________ Signature of Candidate ______________________________________________________ Type of Award MA by Research__________________________________________ School Humanities and Social Sciences____________________________ Abstract The Deaf community in Britain comprises people who use British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate and who share similar lived experiences. The storied lives of Deaf people, told in the community through personal experience narratives, provide insight into the issues that arise from being Deaf in a primarily hearing world. This thesis explores personal experience narratives told by 24 Deaf people from across the UK in an attempt to reveal the typicality embedded within signed personal experience narratives. As a study of human experiences, a qualitative approach is taken and this is reinforced with some numerical data that reveals the frequency of occurrence of patterns across the data sets. This qualitative research study explores signed narratives derived from two main sources: The British Sign Language Corpus and an additional data set collected through fieldwork. In the study, a thematic analysis methodology is employed to answer the research questions, and the findings are divided into cultural and interactional themes. Five latent themes are identified from the data analysis process: Communication, Education, Travel, Access and Community. Further categorisation of the data resulted in a series of sub-themes, comprising: getting attention; signing; lack of understanding; mouthings/gestures; use of light; visuality; missed information; reading and writing; technology; and bonding. The study explores personal experiences that reflect the typicality embedded within the narratives, and concludes that the shared personal experiences of Deaf people are related to the consequences of communicating in an auditory-based society, and the effects of the educational provision for deaf children in the UK. The study also concludes that academic understanding of the lived experiences of Deaf people would benefit from further research of personal experience narratives told by Deaf people in order to expand existing knowledge and provide information to the Deaf community. i Acknowledgements I would like to thank my Director of Studies, Martin O’Brien, for his constant encouragement and academic guidance throughout the workings of this thesis, and mainly for believing in the ideas that underpin the study. I also thank Robert Lee, my second supervisor, for his support, especially the increased guidance toward the end. Dr Nick Palfreyman was my unofficial adviser who also gave me valuable feedback - thank you Nick. Many thanks to a wonderful BSL/English interpreter Gail Caudrelier, my constant support from beginning to end who backed me, supported me with the translations, and kept me going. Also thanks to Carol Kyle, another interpreter who supported me with the translations of the narratives, and to Audrey Hill, for helping me to secure the interpreting support. Thank you to my wonderful son, Troy Connors, for transferring my drawings onto the thesis, which saved me hours of figuring it out and made my life easier. Loving thanks also to my lovely parents, June and Frank Glynn, who backed me and supported me at every stage of doing this research. Others have contributed in many ways that I am also grateful to, and want to thank: Tom Glynn, Shanee Buxton, Jennifer Rayman, Lynne Barnes, Paddy Ladd, and thanks to Margaret Fisher from the research department at UCLan for her patience when answering my constant questions. I am aware that there are more people to thank; if I have not mentioned you, please be assured that I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Last, but not least, my thanks go to the gatekeepers and narrators from the fieldwork and narrators from the BSL corpus - without them, this thesis would not have been possible. ii Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. ii Contents ............................................................................................................................ iii Terms of Reference ............................................................................................................ vi Chapter One - Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Personal Experience Narratives: Signed and Spoken.................................................... 1 1.1.1 Narratives .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1.2 Personal Experience and Typicality ....................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Rationale and Thesis Structure...................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Thesis Structure .................................................................................................... 7 Chapter Two - Literature Review ......................................................................................... 9 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Narratives: Content and Functions ............................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Narratives and Content ......................................................................................... 9 2.2.2 Functions of Narratives ....................................................................................... 11 2.3 Personal Experience Narratives .................................................................................. 16 2.3.1 Researching Narratives ....................................................................................... 16 2.3.2 Signed Narratives ................................................................................................ 18 2.4 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter Three - Theory and Methodology .......................................................................... 27 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 27 3.2 Research Design: Theory ............................................................................................. 27 3.2.1 Theoretical Background ...................................................................................... 27 3.2.2 Research Approach ............................................................................................. 31 3.3 Research Design: Methods ......................................................................................... 35 3.3.1 Data Collection .................................................................................................... 36 3.3.2 The Narrators ...................................................................................................... 43 3.3.3 Working with the Data ........................................................................................ 48 3.3.4 Data Coding and Analysis .................................................................................... 57 3.3.5 Research Credibility and Dependability .............................................................. 68 3.4 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 69 iii Chapter Four – Discussion of Findings ................................................................................ 70 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 70 4.2 Framing Narratives ...................................................................................................... 70 4.3 Data Analysis: Main Findings ...................................................................................... 71 4.4 Experiential Content ................................................................................................... 73 4.5 Thematic Analysis: Discussion ..................................................................................... 78 4.5.1 Theme 1: Communication ................................................................................... 81 4.5.2 Theme 2: Education ...........................................................................................