Abstract:
Deaf Culture (DC) is a distinct way of life of deaf people that portrays set of beliefs, values,
behaviours and common language, which is yet to be fully integrated into the educational
programme in Nigeria. Extant literature has shown that DC still remains elusive and
unrecognised, particularly at secondary school level. Previous studies on DC focused more on
primitive and unacceptable way of life for deaf people than on the knowledge, perception and
attitude of Students with Hearing Impairment (SwHI) towards DC. This study, therefore was
carried out to examine knowledge, perception and attitudes of SwHI towards DC in the South-
West, Nigeria.
This study was anchored to Social Identity Theory, while the survey design was adopted. The
six states in the South-West were enumerated. Twelve integrated secondary schools that
accommodated SwHI were purposively selected. A total of 673 students with hearing
impairment were enumerated in three integrated schools in Lagos (190) Ogun (154) and Oyo
(126) states and one integrated school in Osun (101) Ondo (56) and Ekiti (46) states. The
instruments used were Test of Knowledge of Students with Hearing Impairment on DC (r=0.73),
Lang, Gustia, Mowl and Liu Perception (r=0.68) and Berkay, Gardiner and Smith Attitude
(r=0.70) scales. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and t-test at 0.05 level of
significance.
Most respondents were female (55.1%), while Onset of hearing loss of SwHI were pre-lingual
(52.3%) and post-lingual (47.7%). Hearing status of parents were hearing parents (80.4%) and
deaf parents (19.6%). Knowledge of DC among SwHI was fair (1.61) as against the test norm
of 1.70. There was a significant difference between knowledge about DC of SwHI with deaf
parents and those with hearing parents (t=3.83; df=671) There was a significant differene
between knowledge about DC among students who are pre-lingual and those who are post-
lingual (t=6.94; df=671). Perception about DC among SwHI was high (2.18) as against the
threshold of 2.0. There was a significant difference between perception about DC among SwHI
with deaf parents and those with hearing parents (t=5.93; df=671). There was a significant
difference between perception about DC among students who are pre-lingual and post-lingual
(t=6.78; df=671). Attitude towards DC of SwHI was high (2.16) as against the threshold of 2.0.
There was a significant difference between attitude towards DC of SwHI with deaf parents and
those with hearing parents (t=5.41; df=671). There was a significant difference between attitudes
towards DC of students with pre-lingual and those with post-lingual hearing loss (t=2.88;
df=671). There was a significant difference between the level of knowledge about DC of male
and female SwHI (t=3.94). There was a significant difference between perception of DC of male
and female SwHI (t=7.00).
Knowledge, perception and attitude towards deaf culture were largely determined by parents’
hearing status, onset of hearing loss and students’ gender, among Students with Hearing
Impairment in the South-West, Nigeria. There is need to incorporate deaf culture into the
educational system in the integrated secondary schools to meet the cultural, social and linguistic
needs for sustainable and quality learning.
