Recognizing diversity in deaf education: now what do we do with it?

The history of deaf education reveals a constant competition between perspectives and wide differences of opinion about the nature of best practice. All too often, the discourse has centered on “obvious” solutions to the educational challenges faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) learners and offers of a One True Path to better academic outcomes. These “solutions” frequently have lacked an evidence base or, at best, have been examined only for a particular subgroup of learners or those in a particular educational setting—despite the long-accepted recognition that DHH learners are extremely diverse. The current context of education for DHH learners and where it is headed is examined, emphasizing that it is time for the field to recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach to communication, school setting, or sociocultural environment simply cannot be appropriate for all or even most DHH learners.