Unmasking educational inequalities: The impact of COVID-19 on deaf students in higher education

揭露教育不平等：COVID-19 对高等教育聋哑学生的影响

• 批准号: ES/W001772/1
• 负责人: Chijioke Obasi
• 金额: $ 32.38万
• 依托单位: University of the West of Scotland
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW001772%2F1
• 关键词: Unmasking; educational; inequalities; impact; COVID

This research project provides an examination of the impact of COVID-19 on deaf students in higher education. Social distancing measures have had a particularly severe impact on deaf people, many of whom rely on the facial communication for access to many services and relationships with other human beings. For deaf students in higher education this is compounded by the number of support systems required to improve access and inclusion throughout their student journey. Within this research a wide definition of deaf students is used to include those who identify as deaf, Deaf BSL users, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing.Even before the pandemic there were significant problems. Existing research showed that 46% of deaf students did not have their support in place at the start of their course and over half of those waited more than two months to receive it (NDCS, 2019). Social distancing measures have had particularly severe impacts on deaf people (Action on Hearing Loss, 2020). There is a gap in knowledge of: a) the level and detail of these impacts on deaf studentsb) what considerations were given to deaf students in university planning and implementation of COVID-19 regulationsc) the likely long term impact on deaf student experience and outcomesThis project aims to address all these gaps.Although there has been significant coverage of the impact of the pandemic on higher education students, there has been a distinct lack of representation of the specific impacts on deaf students within that coverage. This is a valuable opportunity to conduct widespread research which will explore experiences in HEIs across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It will take a mixed methods approach, using both interviews and surveys to firstly gain a good understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on deaf students' HE experience and secondly to identify good practice that might help to mitigate some of these impacts in the short and longer term future provision. It will provide an insight into institutional responses to COVID-19. Institutional responses such as remote working, online teaching, facial coverings, online induction and extra-curricula activities will be explored. Deaf students' experiences of these measures will also be explored including any particular impacts on availability of human aids to communication such as interpreters, note takers, language support tutors, lip-speakers and sighted guides for deafblind people. The research will examine issues of inclusion and accessibility, in the online classroom and the wider organisations. It will examine institutional planning and responsiveness in the short, medium and longer term, but also in relation to future practices aimed at mitigating disadvantages experienced by deaf students so far. The research seeks to make recommendations for supporting current students in the remaining part of their studies. Given the current calls to re-think HE provision (Hack, 2020), the project team will also work in collaboration with students, support providers and HEIs in order to make best practice recommendations that enhancing remote learning provision for deaf students. The research also adds a valuable contribution to the work being done by disabled students organisations and the national Disabled Student's Commission with its focus on the challenges in responding to the pandemic whilst ensuring disabled students are adequately supported. The research is supported by National Deaf Children's Society and builds on their ongoing work to raise awareness of existing communication barriers made worse by the pandemic. In providing recommendations on best practice in teaching deaf students online it has relevance to the current review of digital teaching and learning being conducted by the Office for Students, and the work of Advance HE and other organisations looking at the future shape of higher education post pandemic.

该研究项目提供了COVID-19对高等教育中聋人学生的影响的检查。社会距离措施对聋人的影响尤其严重，他们中的许多人依靠面部交流获得许多服务和与其他人的关系。对于接受高等教育的聋人学生来说，这一问题因在整个学习过程中改善入学机会和包容性所需的支持系统数量而变得更加复杂。在这项研究中，使用了广泛的聋人学生定义，包括那些认为自己是聋人的人、聋人BSL使用者、聋哑人、盲人和重听人。现有的研究表明，46%的聋人学生在课程开始时没有得到他们的支持，超过一半的人等待了两个多月才得到支持（NDCS，2019）。社交距离措施对聋人的影响尤其严重（听力损失行动，2020年）。在以下方面的知识存在差距：a）这些对聋人学生影响的程度和细节b）在大学规划和实施COVID-19法规时，对聋人学生考虑了哪些因素c）对聋人学生体验和结果可能产生的长期影响该项目旨在解决所有这些差距。尽管已经大量报道了大流行对高等教育学生的影响，在这一覆盖范围内，明显缺乏对聋人学生的具体影响的说明。这是一个宝贵的机会，进行广泛的研究，将探讨在英格兰，北方爱尔兰，苏格兰和威尔士高等院校的经验。它将采取混合方法，使用访谈和调查，首先充分了解COVID-19对聋人学生高等教育经历的影响，其次确定可能有助于在短期和长期未来提供中减轻这些影响的良好做法。它将为机构应对COVID-19提供深入见解。将探讨远程工作、在线教学、面部覆盖、在线上岗培训和课外活动等机构应对措施。还将探讨聋人学生在这些措施方面的经验，包括对提供人类交流辅助工具的任何特殊影响，如口译员、笔记员、语言支持导师、唇语者和盲人的视力向导。该研究将探讨包容性和可访问性的问题，在网上课堂和更广泛的组织。它将审查短期、中期和长期的机构规划和响应能力，同时也涉及旨在减轻聋人学生迄今为止所经历的不利条件的未来实践。这项研究旨在提出建议，以支持当前的学生在他们的学习的其余部分。鉴于目前呼吁重新思考高等教育的规定（哈克，2020年），项目小组还将与学生，支持提供者和高等院校合作，以提出最佳实践建议，加强远程学习提供聋人学生。这项研究还为残疾学生组织和国家残疾学生委员会正在开展的工作做出了宝贵贡献，其重点是应对大流行病的挑战，同时确保残疾学生得到充分的支持。这项研究得到了全国聋人儿童协会的支持，并建立在他们正在进行的工作的基础上，以提高人们对现有沟通障碍的认识，这些障碍因流行病而变得更加严重。在提供关于在线教授聋人学生的最佳实践的建议时，它与学生办公室正在进行的数字教学和学习的当前审查以及Advance HE和其他组织的工作有关，这些工作着眼于流行病后高等教育的未来形态。