INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION OF, AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS DEAF CULTURE AMONG STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN THE SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

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.