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An outcome of Ramsey's dissertation research for which she spent a year gathering data, the book is 125 pages, divided into seven
chapters. It records Ramsey's observations of three deaf second grade boys--Tom, Robbie, and Paul--the teachers in their
self-contained and mainstreaming classrooms, and their instructional assistant/sign language interpreter.
In Chapter 1, Ramsey lays down the Vygotskyan framework that underlies her study and guides her observations. Vygotsky, a Russian
psychologist and linguist, believed that learning and development occur through relationships and interaction with others, and
that culture, through language, is a mediator. Thus Ramsey's observations were directed to interaction, language use, and the
organization of contexts for children's learning, which she describes as complex cultural settings.
Chapter 2 is a straightforward description of the school and its mainstreaming program for deaf and hard of hearing children from
preschool through fifth grade. Ramsey describes both the mainstreaming and self-contained classrooms, gives details about the boys
and their teachers, delineates her data collection methods, and ends with a broad description of the analysis.
In Chapter 3, she presents an historical overview of school placements in deaf education and the discussion of impact of various
laws and accompanying guidelines on mainstreaming practices as well as on current enrollment patterns. Her view is that the
placement of deaf and hard of hearing children in integrated educational programs generally occurs not to create social settings
to support their learning and development, but for reasons having to do with idealistic American goals of equal educational
opportunity.
Ramsey describes in detail the mainstreaming program in Chapter 4, and the tensions that existed on several levels between the
general education and deaf and hard of hearing program staffs. On one level, issues arose over making decisions for the children
based on providing an equal educational opportunity versus meeting their educational needs; on another level, tensions developed
over day to day logistics involving schedules, time, and space. She describes the details of the physical arrangement of the
mainstreaming classroom, where the boys went for math, social studies, and science—the "hearing-based format" of instructional
strategies, opportunities to communicate, and various rules of behavior.
In Chapter 5, Ramsey takes a close look at the interaction and communication that occur in the mainstream classroom. According to
Ramsey, this classroom was teacher-centered and traditionally organized. With limited access to common linguistic resources—the
hearing children could not sign and the deaf children could not speak—interaction among the children was found to be constrained
and superficial. It did not lead to assimilation into the classroom or to friendships; neither substance nor content were
developmentally useful. Noting that the primary interaction was between the teacher and individual children with very little peer
conversation or class discussion, I found this model of teaching unacceptable for any child—hearing or deaf.
Chapter 6—the book's longest chapter—is also its best. With Chapter 5, it forms the heart of the book. Here Ramsey focuses on
the boys and their teachers in the self-contained classroom. She finds the children busy and engaged in academic work, with
opportunities for conversation and interaction imbedded in every activity. American Sign Language is the language of instruction,
and its use, according to Ramsey, makes this setting a context for learning. Details about the language curriculum—journal
writing, book sharing, and language lessons—show it to be built around the use of language both in face-to-face and in print
contexts. Many wonderful examples are given of conversations between Tom, Robbie, and Paul about their school work, and between
the boys and their teachers. Ramsey provides very enjoyable reading in her detailed descriptions of a journal writing session each
boy had with his teacher. These narratives allow the reader to trace the teaching-learning process in the boys' own words and give
vivid insight into their individual personalities. After reading over 100 pages about their situations in the mainstreaming
classroom, I was able to feel happy for them here.
In the final chapter, Ramsey concludes the stories of Tom, Robbie, Paul, their teachers, and their mainstreaming program. She
reports on her year in second grade with these people, and reflects on the difficulties of educating deaf children in mainstreamed
public school settings. I found the book to be scholarly accountable, with a strong theoretical foundation and adequate support
from referenced citations. However, readers wanting a detailed description of the research methodology and analysis will not find
it here. Those of us wanting to understand how Ramsey's data support her observations and conclusions will need to go to the
dissertation itself.
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Last modified June 10, 1998
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Copyright © 1997, All rights reserved
Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center
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