lrk’s blog

The power of education is in the ability to change – to change yourself, inspire and encourage others to change, and change the world. Being a great teacher is about being creative, passionate, respectful and humble. When you meet a great teacher, you know it! But how do you become one yourself? This is the basis for my work as a teacher, teacher educator and researcher.

I work as a senior lecturer in Deakin University’s Faculty of Education, on the Melbourne campus. I supervise higher degree research students, and teach post- and under-graduate students in language education. My teaching and research interests can be summed up by three words: language, politics and power. These concepts underpin my teaching of language and literacies, and research in deafness.

It is an exciting time to engage with these issues, particularly in the area of deafness. The legitimacy of native sign languages and the cultural status of Deaf communities has been recognised in many countries around the world. National and international deafness organisations (like the Australian Association of the Deaf and the World Federation of the Deaf) lobby for greater recognition and acceptance of native sign languages in education, among other things. International human rights conventions identify the linguistic rights of deaf people to access their native language in education and the society generally. At the same time, technological advances in medicine (genetic screening, new-born hearing screening and cochlear implantation) challenge the cultural view of deafness.

In the words of Prof. Walter McGinitie: “It is better to be seeking truth than to think we have found it”