Prospects for transforming deaf education to sign bilingual education for sustainable development in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Sign bilingual education (SBE) is a relatively new model of educating deaf learners that embraces equitable use of sign and oral languages in inclusive education environments. For deaf learners, Sign Language is used for instruction and the oral language for literacy development. SBE demands the teaching and learning of Sign Language as a subject for all learners, from early childhood education (ECD) to tertiary level. In countries where it is well-established, SBE is seen as a transformative approach to inclusive education and as a solution to the perceived poor performance of deaf learners. It facilitates equal participation, improves the quality of education, and hence promotes lifelong learning opportunities as enunciated in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 and re-emphasized in Aspiration 1, Goal 2 of African Agenda 2063. This article reviews literature framed within transformative and sustainability paradigms and synthesises policy frameworks to situate SBE within inclusive education and sustainable development discourses with special focus on deaf learners in Zimbabwe. While there are reasonable prospects for SBE in Zimbabwe, it is not clearly enunciated in policy frameworks and its implementation and practice are negated through lack of resources and questionable political will. The article concludes that, to improve meaningful participation of deaf people in sustainable development in Zimbabwe, there is need for policy reforms and a paradigm shift in support of SBE. Consequently, the article recommends training and staff development of teachers of the deaf and other stakeholders, reviewing of policies and making them intentional towards SBE, implementing curriculum reforms aligned to SBE and allocating a specific budget for this transformation. Future research should focus on mainstreaming Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) within SBE to promote accessible, quality inclusive and lifelong education for deaf people to meaningfully participate in sustainable development.