Re-dening norms: D/deaf young peoples transitions to independence

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

Abstract
Traditionally, young peoples transitions from a state of dependent childhood to an independent adult identity have been measured in terms of a developmental stage model. However, it is increasingly being recognised that young people are not a universal category and that their transitions need to be understood within the diverse context of peers, family, and communities. This paper draws on a rich body of work from the interdisciplinary eld of Deaf studies and original research with D/deaf young people a group generally overlooked by sociological research to challenge and to advance conventional interdisciplinary debates about youth transitions in two ways. In the rst half of the paper we examine D/deaf young peoples conventional school-to-work, housing and domestic transitions and in doing so reect upon the ways that their experiences shed a new light on understandings of these traditional markers of independent adulthood. In the second half of the paper we challenge conventional denitions of what marks an important transition by focusing on the transition that many D/deaf young people themselves dene as the most signicant in their lives, learning BSL and the transition to an independent D/deaf identity that this enables them to make. In doing so the paper mainstreams within sociology an important body of research about D/deaf peoples experiences from Deaf studies.

The concept of transitions is at the heart of inter-disciplinary research on youth (Cieslik and Pollock, 2002).Traditionally, young peoples transitions from a state of dependent childhood to an independent adult identity have been measured in terms of a developmental stage model (eg Kruger, 1988). The key markers of adulthood have commonly been regarded as: leaving full-time education and entering the labour market; moving out of the parental home to establish an independent household; and marriage/co-habitation and parenthood (Morrow and Richards, 1996). Coles (1997) has summarized these as the school-to-work transition, housing transition, and domestic transition. Recently, there has been a growing critique of the linear nature of this transitions model (eg Jones, 1995; Furlong and Cartmel, 1997; Cieslik and Pollock, 2002). This has in part, been prompted by recognition that young peoples transitions are becoming more risky and unpredictable in the context
The Sociological Review, 55:1 (2007) 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review. Published by Blackwell Publishing Inc., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, 02148, USA.

Re-dening norms

of late modernity. In this phase it is argued there has been dissolution of the traditional parameters of the industrial society. The old certainties of traditional occupations are being replaced by the need for individuals to adapt to the de-standardisation of work and changing labour market conditions, by for example, re-training, and switching occupations. Individuals identities, and lifestyles are no longer so clearly related to their employment and family backgrounds. Traditional ideas and expectations about social relations are also being reworked. Beck (1992) argues that released from the constraints and social norms of tradition, individuals are now freer to choose between a range of options in the pursuit of their own happiness (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). As such there is growing recognition that the passage of young people into adulthood is no longer linear in terms of the sequencing and timing of transitions. Rather, there is increasing acknowledgment of the uncertainty and fragmented nature of young peoples transition experiences (Chisholm and Du Bois-Reymond, 1993; Skelton, 2002). In some cases transitions are becoming speeded up (eg young people are having sexual relationships at an earlier age); in other cases they are more protracted (eg the deterioration in social support for young people means that some are dependent on their families for longer). School-to-work, housing and domestic transitions are less likely to be accomplished by a certain age, and are less synchronous in that a young person may make the school-to-work transition but not housing or domestic transitions (and vice versa). These transitions are also increasingly reversible, with young people leaving the parental home but then returning (Jones, 1995). Implicit within this research and writing has been recognition that the traditional transitions model has placed too much emphasis on normal development. Not all young people either aspire to all of these norms, or achieve them in a form that can be measured or acknowledged in conventional ways. Rather there is increasing acknowledgment that young people are not a universal category and that their transitions need to be understood within the diverse context of peers, family, communities (Marshall and Stenner, 1997). While there has been some recognition of the way that class, gender, and race inuence expectations, the responsibilities that young people have to take on, and their transition outcomes (eg Chisholm and Du Bois-Reymond, 1993; MacDonald, 1998) other social identities have largely been absent from this discussion. In this paper we draw on work from Deaf studies and our own empirical research with D/deaf young people to advance interdisciplinary debates about youth transitions in two ways. In the rst half of the paper we examine D/deaf young peoples conventional school-to-work, housing and domestic transitions and in doing so reect upon the ways that their experiences shed a new light on understandings of these traditional markers of independent adulthood. In the second half of the paper we challenge conventional denitions of what marks an important transition by focusing on the transition that many D/deaf young people a group relatively neglected by sociological research themselves dene as the most signicant in their lives,
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

105

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

learning BSL and the transition to an independent D/deaf identity that this enables them to make. Although, the eld of Deaf studies has extensively documented the experiences of D/deaf people this paper brings this work into mainstream sociological debate, and applies it in an original way to debates within the sociology of youth in order to challenge and develop youth transition theory. Our ndings are based on in-depth interviews1 with 41 D/deaf people. Thirty of these interviewees are heterosexual and 11 are self-dened lesbians and gay men. One informant is a British Asian of Muslim faith, one a British Asian of Sikh faith and one of mixed Afro-Caribbean/white British heritage. The other informants are all white, of whom one identies as Irish and another Russian. In addition, 14 service providers for the D/deaf (eg social workers with D/deaf people, interpreters, representatives of the local authority, disability support workers for students etc.) were interviewed about their role in supporting young D/deaf peoples transitions to adulthood. Four of the D/deaf people we interviewed have D/deaf parents or siblings, the remainder come from families where all their immediate relatives (parents/siblings) are hearing. D/deaf children who grow up in D/deaf families usually have quite different experiences from those who grow up in hearing households because they do not experience the same communication problems with their families, and have a more positive and earlier introduction to D/deaf identity, culture and community. In this paper we focus only on the experiences of those who have grown up D/deaf within hearing families. The research informants were recruited from the Midlands of the UK by a combination of methods including: snowballing from multiple sources, advertisements on the Internet and in newsletters, and contact with a range of relevant support, advice and social groups. All the interviews, which were conducted by the authors2 in a place of the informants choice, lasted between one and two hours. These were audio tape-recorded, transcribed, and then analysed using conventional social science techniques. Five of the interviewees opted to use oral methods (lip reading and speech) of communication. The other interviews were conducted in British Sign Language (BSL) or Sign Supported English (SSE). As we are both hearing and have only basic signing skills we worked with professional interpreters chosen by the interviewees. In most cases the interpreter signed the interviewers spoken questions to the informant, and then verbalized the signed responses back to the interviewer. These exchanges were audio-tape recorded.3 In some cases the interpreter signed the questions to the informant who then responded verbally to the interviewer. The interview schedule was checked and modied in the light of guidance from interpreters, and Deaf people acting as advisers, to reect more culturally appropriate ways of asking and ordering the questions. Interpreters also assisted with the checking and analysis of the transcripts and two participated with us and Deaf people in the making of a video of the project ndings in BSL for dissemination to the informants and wider Deaf community. This is available from the authors. 106
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

Like any cross-cultural research working with an interpreter can result in linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, and inuence the behaviour and response of both the interviewer and informant (Smith, 1996; Twyman et al., 1999). These issues are particularly pertinent when the interpretation occurs between two languages with different modalities. BSL is a complex visual language that has its own structure and grammar (in which location, movement and orientation are the key grammatical concepts) that differs from oral-aural English (Kyle and Woll, 1983; Kyle and Woll, 1985, Sutton-Spence and Woll, 1998). Rather than acting out words, BSL involves the three- dimensional use of space in which hand shapes and the speed, direction and type of movements, combined with facial and bodily expressions, are used to convey meanings. Unlike verbal languages that are essentially linear, visual languages such as BSL can simultaneously convey different pieces of information and layers of meaning. For example, different hands might be used to make subject and object signs within a signing space which can be employed to indicate location, while facial expressions are being used to show intensity, and head movements used to indicate whether this is positive or negative. As a result, in addition to the sort of changes in message that can occur as a result of errors when one spoken language is interpreted into another spoken language such as the interpreter using a wrong word or pitching the register incorrectly there is a further inevitable loss of meaning when a visual language is interpreted into a linear spoken language and the written word (Kyle and Woll, 1985; Hale, 1997). These complexities of interpretation were further compounded in this interview context by the different linguistic backgrounds of our informants. While for some BSL was a rst language, for others BSL had been acquired quite late and so their signing was less uent, while others still had grown up using sign supported English or in one case Russian sign language. As such the uency of the interpretation from BSL to spoken English often relied on the skills of the interpreter in engaging with the particular form of signing used by the informant. There is an extensive literature on the politics of how research is conducted and how knowledge is produced. In particular, feminist research has highlighted the importance of researcher sharing aspects of their identity with their informants. The insider status this is assumed to bring is credited with producing more authentic/valid and less oppressive research relationships and knowledge (Stanley and Wise, 1992). Within critical disability studies it has been argued that unless disabled people lead or carry out research about disability issues it will have limited relevance to their lives (Oliver and Barnes, 1997). In the particular, context of this research the Deaf community are an indigenous minority culture that have a long history of being oppressed and discriminated against by hearing people and who are very critical of the failure of hearing people to understand the world from a Deaf perspective, and make their ndings available to Deaf people (Ladd, 1988, 2003; Young and Ackerman, 2001).
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

107

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

However, other authors have demonstrated that it is both possible to understand across difference and misunderstand through sameness (Rose, 1997; Valentine, 2002); and have questioned to what extent any individual is culturally representative of a group (albeit Deaf or hearing). These debates have explored the limitations and complexities of being able to unpick or truly know how our identities (whether it being in terms of Deaf/hearing, gender, class or whatever) are being read by others and affect the research process (Rose, 1997). Therefore, while we sought to work closely with Deaf people during the research process (as described above) the extent to which our identities as hearing researchers affected our relationship with the informants or the data that was collected is incredibly complex and is beyond the scope of this paper. These issues are discussed in more detail in Valentine (2005). There are two dominant constructions of D/deafness: deafness as a medical matter and the Deaf as a linguistic minority (Padden, 1980/1991; Corker, 1996; Lane, 1997). The writing of deaf is commonly used to imply: a medical description of deafness measured against the norm of hearing people. It usually signies those who do not present a strong deaf identity and who generally rely on oral styles of communication (lip-reading, speaking) rather than BSL. In contrast, Deaf is linked to the construction of a linguistic identity and culture. It is commonly used by those whose rst/only or preferred language is BSL, and whose identity and behaviour is consistent with the norms, traditions and practices of Deaf culture (Ladd, 1988, 2003). As such Deaf-aware hearing people who are uent signers might be considered part of the Deaf community. A Deaf identity however, is not just something that can be claimed by an individual as a self-identity, rather a Deaf identity is also dependent at least in part, on an individual being ascribed or accepted as Deaf by the community. The boundary between what are known as big D and little d identities can be uid over time and space. For example, learning BSL often results in a shift over time in an individuals self-identity from deaf to Deaf. Likewise, in different Deaf spaces an individuals behaviour might be regarded by others as more or less consistent with the social practices of Deaf culture, and therefore their identity might be ascribed in different contexts as Deaf or deaf (an ascription that may also differ from their own self-identity). Here, we generally use the convention of writing D/deaf in a dual form to reect this uidity and complexity, and to render our discussion inclusive of the different identities and positionalities articulated by our informants throughout the research upon which this paper is based. Where we just use the terms Deaf or deaf we are referring to the specic differentiated meanings outlined above.

D/deaf transitions in the hearing world

Ninety ve per cent of D/deaf people are born into hearing families (Bullis et al., 1997). The rst introduction that their parents have to D/deafness is 108
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

usually as a result of medical professionals denitions that their child is not normal. This medical model of disability (Shakespeare, 1993) works from the assumption that the individual body at fault needs to be treated or managed so that it might conform as much as possible to mainstream norms. In the case of D/deaf people this usually means offering D/deaf children hearing aid technologies (and more recently cochlear implants) and training in oral methods of communication (lip-reading and speech). Hearing parents usually have little or no knowledge of Deaf culture and of the possibilities of using BSL as a method of communication in the family and signing based educational opportunities. As such, the limited opportunities that D/deaf young people have to understand or communicate with hearing people mean that they often feel very isolated from the world around them, receive limited support and thus a poor start in terms of the acquisition of literacy and language (Gregory et al., 1995; Corker, 1996; Foster, 1996). Such experiences of hearing family life also mean that deaf young people have low expectations of opportunities in the wider world. These young people explain: Lisa: Im, Im never really part of the family, I was always on the outside, because with my mothers family you see, it was all spoken, you know conversation, thered be no signing really, I was always on the outside, I always felt like that. Liam: Well I do feel theres a kind of inequality cos its very hard for deaf people to get, to get the opportunities whereas for hearing people its dead easy they just, they just get all they want, and theres always problems of not understanding whats going on and not getting help. I always feel like Im lost, like I dont understand whats going on and [hearing] people dont understand. This lack of understanding of the hearing world and consequent naivety can make D/deaf young people vulnerable as they negotiate domestic transitions to adulthood. Justine, a lesbian, explains she was in her teens before she appreciated the notion of heterosexuality, while Lara and Clive Nevis (an interpreter who works for an out-reach team on a community bus) describes D/deaf young peoples vulnerability to other forms of social risk. Justine: I didnt think of it as anything I assumed everybody was like me, you know. I assumed you know cos I played with girls and everything and I never thought anything of it really and for the way I felt, but when I did some childcare courses [as a teenager] then I learned about its a man and a woman that gets together, and I was thinking oh well how come I felt like that [was attracted to women] . . . and so I, at that point I . . . thought okay I have to be with men then, Ill have to try and get boyfriends and do all that kind of thing. But in, it was only really through childcare course that I found out [about the concept of heterosexuality]
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

109

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

Lara: [My] school was in a pretty rough area and you can see people smoking using drugs, different kinds of things within the area. I didnt get involved in it because my family had explained to me the dangers of smoking and the drugs I knew that I had to keep away from it but some of the other friends were involved with it because they didnt know, it wasnt their fault, they hadnt been given the information, they didnt know it was dangerous. Clive Nevis: I see an Asian girl, a 15 year old whos very young, 15 year erm, what they say really Deaf kids can be 3 or 4 years behind their age [in terms of language skills and understanding] . . . shes so attractive . . . shes got no idea whatsoever . . . she was asking the most basic questions really, no idea about contraception, no idea about how she would . . . she ran the risk oh dear, got no idea about sexually transmitted diseases, no idea about erm drugs, no idea about alcohol, we were spending hours just going through this stuff, but the problem that I had [as an interpreter] with that is the linguistic problems of getting something over to a person that doesnt understand. Not surprisingly Moorhead (1995) characterises D/deaf peoples experience of making the transition to adulthood in the hearing world as one of struggle and challenge. Most notably they struggle to understand the world around them, to access information to enable them to make their own informed choices, and to control their own lives in the face of the hearing peoples stigma of deafness and the professionals and institutions that impose meanings on their experiences (Corker, 1996). As a result mental health problems are prevalent amongst Deaf young people. One study of 62 deaf children aged 1116 years old attending a Deaf residential school and three Hearing Impaired Units found that over 50% of the young people had psychiatric problems (Hindley et al., 1994). They can also be vulnerable to abuse by adults in the education system. Hearing teachers and careers ofcers in mainstream schools (like some hearing families) commonly have very low expectations of D/deaf pupils, which in part often reects the poor language acquisition and literacy of Deaf young people growing up in hearing families (Gregory et al., 1995). This is reected in their limited efforts at effective communication, and inappropriate decision-making on behalf of their D/deaf young people. Interviewees described the way that staff often abdicated responsibility for teaching them to communication support workers (CSW) who were only supposed to be there to help them to participate in regular lessons. Some D/deaf young people also recalled being withdrawn from academic classes, particularly English and modern languages; channelled into practical courses such as art; and being sent on undemanding and inappropriate work experience placements. Not surprisingly educational underachievement is commonplace (Decaro and EglestonDodd, 1982; Powers et al., 1998; Watson et al., 1999). 110
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

The shift in policy from educating deaf children in specialist deaf schools to one of mainstreaming has also resulted in the loss of cultural transmission by Deaf elders to young people and their isolation from Deaf culture and role models (Lane, 1984; Padden and Humphries, 1988; Branson and Miller, 1993; Lane Hoffmeister and Bahan, 1996; Ladd, 2003). Many young D/deaf people lack exposure to, or awareness of, the range of possible career options open to them and nd themselves pigeonholed into stereotypical work such as catering and warehouse work. Through such processes of marginalisation D/deaf peoples transitions to independence can become protracted because the lack of control which they have over their own everyday lives can drain them of self-esteem and competence. For example, informants described leaving school with few life skills because so many needs were met (such as taxis to school or the booking of CSWs or interpreters) or choices were made for them without their understanding or consultation. This can often result in transition shock when having exited the education system they are expected to take full responsibility for their own lives. While D/deaf informants who went to selective D/deaf schools commonly had a more supportive education and reached higher levels of academic attainment, they too describe a transition shock. As Carolyn describes, she felt ill-prepared to leave a D/deaf aware school environment and participate in the dis-abling environment (Imrie, 1996) of the hearing world. Carolyn: Most children would be very happy to leave school but I was very upset leaving school, because it was like a safe world cos I was with all deaf children, even though the teachers were hearing we were able to communicate and I was always able to ask if I dont understand things like that. Then all of a sudden I had to cope with all these hearing people, whereas my Mum shes brilliant, she knew how depressed I was, she said right lets go shopping, lets do the housework together, everything we did together just to keep busy. As Carolyns account of leaving school implies, despite the emphasis within Becks (1992) individualization thesis on the greater freedom that individuals have to dene their own way in the world, research nonetheless shows that families and family resources systems economic, social, cultural and affective are still crucial in supporting and facilitating young peoples transitions (Allatt, 1993; Valentine and Skelton, 2003), as these quotations illustrate: Lara: It was hard [leaving home] because we were new [she and her Deaf boyfriend] to it, it was the rst time for both of us, and we werent too sure what to do, so we had to learn to manage just with everyday practical things: paying the bills, water, phone, all that kind of thing. And before that, prior to that I had no idea. Id never had to pay a telephone bill in my life, so I didnt realise you had to pay it every three months or that the water bill had to be paid twice a year, I just didnt know things like that, or that the TV had
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

111

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

a licence you to pay. I had, just didnt think about, I never thought about it. School had never taught me about that, thered been no kind of independent living skills there. Id never thought about it, so I thought, I had, I had to keep asking my parents for information [edit] . . . its the life experiences that you have to pick up, that was hard. Carolyn: [Describing her rst day at University] all day I was very tense because all these people walking around and Im trying to get to know people but I couldnt. I just sat by myself and then after the end of the day I went to meet my Mum . . . and I thought oh I hated it, and Mum was upset, like I mean next day you know keep going, my Mum kept telling me, you know keep going. [Edit. Later she described how her mother also facilitated her transition from University into employment] I thought what next [after University]. Really its my Mum again, erm she told everybody that I was looking for a job and there was a woman actually, she actually applied for a job, but got a job in London, but she didnt want it so she gave my name [to] the person that she was going to work for and . . . I got it. While these informants accounts might be read as a sign of dependency rather than independence, paradoxically such family protectiveness, which is often seen as negative, can be very positive if it builds a young persons self esteem and condence and so supports school-to-work and housing transitions. Likewise, other informants who lacked such domestic support and had to make their own way in the world might be regarded as more independent and therefore as having made a positive transition to adulthood, yet have experienced negative outcomes such as unemployment because they have lacked support at crucial moments. In this way, dependence and independence are not mutually exclusive or contradictory states in which a young person moves from one to the other in a one-off process (Jones and Wallace, 1992; Wallace and Kovatcheva, 1998). Rather, dependency in one context may support independence in another context, and vice versa some forms of independence, if premature or unsuccessful, might reproduce other forms of dependency. It is therefore crucial to look at transitions in a holistic sense, recognising relationships between different transitional elements, and that people might be simultaneously dependent in one aspect of their lives yet independent in another. Indeed, the transitions literature has paid far more attention to the effect of school-to-work transition on other transitions, than the more multi-directional and complex sets of relationships that exist between different transition elements. Most notably, the labour market has often been assumed to determine changes in the timing of transitions from a state of dependency to independent adulthood, yet, social reproduction can also be crucial (Irwin, 1995). For example, marriage between D/deaf people from hearing families and those from Deaf families, whose rst language is BSL, and the birth of either a hearing or D/deaf child can affect the extent to which individuals make a transition towards an oral or a D/deaf identity. Eleanor was brought up in a 112
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

hearing family and achieved academic success in the hearing world. However, her marriage to a Deaf man from a Deaf family whose rst language is BSL, and his determination that any children they should have will not be raised in the oralist tradition, has meant that her own oral communication skills have diminished as she has become more Deaf. Thus, her domestic transition while enhancing her transition to a D/deaf identity and independence in the D/deaf community may simultaneously be undermining her communication skills and therefore independence in the hearing world. Here, she describes the inuence of her domestic transition on her educational performance: Eleanor: Digby, my partner and I, been with, together for quite a while. I dont realise how my English deteriorates. Its not as good as it used to be and I started to think more in BSL. Because my [hearing] family [with whom she communicates orally] live a long way away . . . I dont see them much, so I dont use my English skills as much as I should do. And I had a bit of a problem in my nal year with my [University] dissertation because my BSL was inuencing my English and it got all mixed up in terms of structure . . . so think right I need to be aware . . . cos I can see my, myself, comparing my college and my school work to my current work and how I write English, there is a big difference, its certainly gone down hill. Moreover, although simple denitions of independence and dependence are being replaced by more complex analyses of different transitions to adulthood, individual autonomy is still assumed to be the outcome. Yet, as several of the quotations in this section imply, adult children may retain elements of an emotional, social and sometimes material dependency on their families throughout their lives. This is not necessarily a one-way relationship. Rather, family relationships are perhaps better understood as relationships of interdependency in which other family members own social identities, emotional well-being and material resources can develop through their interactions with their children/siblings, such that they are sometimes dependent upon their offspring. Laras transition from dependency in the hearing world to an independent identity within the Deaf community which was facilitated by learning BSL, prompted her mother and sister to learn to sign too, this in turn resulted in them seeking employment working with/for D/deaf people and becoming involved in the Deaf community in their own right.This nding is supported by other research which has shown how families themselves undergo transitions in response to the challenge of young Deaf peoples emerging identities (Gregory et al., 1995). This nding suggests that by focusing on the nature of family interrelationships, the way individual members choices impact on others, and people jointly construct identities and the experience of family life rather than just on individual biographies, we might gain a more comprehensive understanding of the context in which young people become adults. The sociological literature on young peoples transitions has often focused on the problems encountered by young people such as homelessness and
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

113

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

unemployment, particularly in relation to those groups who are regarded as vulnerable. However, in doing so, there is a risk of implying that young people lack social agency. While D/deaf young peoples transitions to adulthood are impinged on by the structural constraints of the hearing world, nonetheless as the examples presented in this section suggest, they are also characterised by resilience, with many D/deaf young people successfully attaining productive, stable and positive lifestyles. Resilience is dened by Masten (1994: 4) as the way that effectiveness in the environment is achieved, sustained or recovered despite adversity. One of the ways this achieved by many D/deaf young people is through learning BSL and accessing D/deaf culture. The transition to a Deaf identity, and what this can mean for D/deaf peoples broader pathways to independence, is the focus of the next section of the paper.

The transition to a family of choice: BSL and D/deaf identities

The traditional school-to-work, housing and domestic transitions described in the previous section are largely events-based and institutionalized in that they are governed by established norms and practices, measured for example in terms of formal qualications, marriage ceremonies and so on, and are conferred on young people by wider family/community and society. Yet, these transition labels are often applied to young people rather than being derived from what young people themselves regard as the signicant transitions in their lives (Wyn and Dwyer, 1999). The criteria for transition to adulthood employed by most sociologists are not the same as those identied by most young people, who as social agents in their own lives, often have different perceptions of their own competence and development (Arnett, 1997). Whereas paid work is commonly regarded as the major stepping stone into adulthood because it gives young people the resources to leave home and participate in leisure and consumption, Arnett (1997) suggests that young peoples own markers of independence are more intangible processes. His research with young people dened maturity in terms such as: accepting responsibility for your own actions, being in emotional control, and having an equal relationship with parents. Independence has no universal meaning or signicance but rather is lived out differently in different social contexts. For many D/deaf young people their most signicant transition to independence is dened in terms of learning BSL which enables them to access Deaf culture and make the transition from a little d to a big D identity. Carty (1994) denes D/deaf identity transitions as being characterised by confusion brought about by a sense of difference; frustration and anger at the lack of understanding and acceptance by hearing people; the exploration of self identity options within hearing and Deaf worlds (that can involve both ambivalence and rejection) and ultimately identication. Jill describes how she experienced this transition process. 114
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

Jill: I moved over to, to university, and at that time I thought well hang on a minute, you know, I thought, I think I went through at that time an identity crisis to be honest with you. I started to question everything, I started to question myself, I started to question my, you know validity of being in the hearing world, I thought you know where am I going? My parents, I remember one day saying you know why am I like this, you know youve got to try and t in, to improve your speech. I said well if Im never going to improve, if Im never going to get better why bother you know. I felt for me I was more condent in the signing world than the hearing world. It made a big impact on me at that time. I thought oh why go to speech therapy, you know, if I dont understand it I dont understand what, you know, why should I bother with it? I started to learn to sign, I would say, you know, I was over at . . . university, so you know 19, 20 and I took it over very, very quickly. The transition to learning BSL and so being able to access and communicate freely in the Deaf world is often described by Deaf people in terms of a homecoming or a transition from a family of origin to a family of choice (Corker, 1996). Ladd (2003) describes this process of becoming Deaf, as one of self-actualisation, and relates it to the process many lesbians and gay men go through in the process of coming out and nding the gay community. These interviewees describe what learning to sign has meant to them: Janice: . . . you have that kind of bond with people, you mix with D/deaf people, you have the same sign language, you feel like youre inside the Deaf word, whereas when youre in the hearing world you dont have the communication youve got written language but its a real relief you can feel really relaxed talking with D/deaf people, I always look forward to going to the Deaf club because you have such a full life there . . . [edit, later] its a closeness with D/deaf people, you know youd go out on a Saturday, youre always with your D/deaf mates, you go to Deaf clubs, you play bingo together, you chat with each other, when you leave that environment and you go outside, youre still signing, you, you dont want to go home. It can be two or three oclock in the morning and its raining and you dont want to go home. And then when you go home you feel almost like youve lost, no lost, youve been separated from your culture and youre waiting for the next Saturday when you can get back together again. Lara: The best thing that happened to me, the sign language . . . I think my life would be different now because there would have been the oral inuence. I mean because of the oralism you know I might not have been involved in the world. Its sign language, it enables you to get so much information and I think my life would have been so different without that. I wouldnt be involved in the Deaf community and there are so many D/deaf issues that I wouldnt be interested in because oralism keeps you away from the D/deaf community, its very segregated and tries to keep you more towards the hearing community.
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

115

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

While the transition to an independent Deaf identity is powerful and important to many Deaf young people, it is often not recognised or understood as such by hearing people. Hearing parents are commonly ignorant of the Deaf world or may even shy away from BSL because they are fearful that if their child becomes part of the Deaf community it might cause a cultural split within the family (Densham, 1995). By trying to encourage young D/deaf peoples conventional transitions to the hearing world, paradoxically families and schools can actual impede or delay their transition to a Deaf identity by stigmatising it. Unlike most traditional transitions to adulthood, that are normally expected to be achieved within a specic age-range (eg the educationto-work transition usually occurs between 1624), this transition is commonly achieved at diverse biographical moments. These interviewees describe the obstacles to their transitions to independent Deaf identities. Stuart: . . . my parents were hearing, which was ne you know, they didnt know a Deaf community was out there and no body ever told them . . . I was completely isolated . . . I met a Deaf person who said there was a Deaf community, I said really oh I didnt know. And that would be when I was 19. I didnt know there was a Deaf club until then and I went deaf at six and a half so I lost 13 and half years where I didnt know there was a Deaf club. Carolyn: I was brainwashed with the teacher because they kept saying that the sign language its for people who cant, for lower abilities, thats what they said, for if youre not clever then use sign language but if you are clever you shouldnt be using sign language and thats what they kept saying over and over again . . . I was confused whether the teacher was right or not [edit, later] I didnt know whether I should be in the hearing world or the Deaf world and I was just like in the middle all that time . . . at that time I felt awful because I didnt belong anywhere, and my Mum really tried hard, but I do belong in a Deaf world, but I wasnt ready at that time. By creating assumptions about normal development the transitions model also implicitly throws up the possibility of failed or broken transitions (Craine, 1997; Coles, 1997). Even though Becks (1992) individualisation thesis means that particular life events, like getting a job and marriage, are less certain markers of adulthood, research suggests that expectations of normal or desired transitions (measured in terms of educational qualications, employment and so on) remain remarkably unchanged (McDowell, 2002). Because D/deaf young people commonly underachieve at school and experience high rates of under and unemployment they are often regarded as having made failed transitions. Yet these traditional ideas of development are not necessarily a marker of Deaf young peoples level of independence because they only measure Deaf peoples participation within the hearing world rather than their self-identity and participation within Deaf culture. Becks (1992) emphasis on the choices 116
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

that individuals are perceived to have to dene their own lives in late modernity, and the corresponding blame that is often attached to making choices that result in unsuccessful outcomes, has been extensively critiqued for underplaying the importance of the wider structural processes that limit some young peoples choices, and the differential resources that young people have to achieve conventional transitions (Roberts, 1997; Furlong and Cartmel, 1997). For some D/deaf people their experiences of the hearing world are either so negative and unrewarding, or so irrelevant in terms of their aspirations, that opting out of the hearing world is a positive choice (particularly from paid work in hearing environments or hearing educational environments), even though in hearing terms this may be read as failure. In this sense young D/deaf peoples management of their own life transitions depends on translating and (re)negotiating denitions of desirable aspirations and outcomes for themselves. Dani: I felt good being among the D/deaf people, felt like I was one of them, yeah, felt good and being in X [a Deaf aware] college, you know being around D/deaf people all the time and I started to, I suppose to drift apart from hearing people, I was spending more time you know with, with D/deaf people, so the more time I spent in X [the Deaf aware college], I think you know I, I almost lost my erm ability to sort of speak so well with hearing people. So some, I struggle more now than I ever did with hearing people cos Ive spent so much of my time with D/deaf people, you know, theres so many D/deaf people here. Stuart: [Describes moving from a well paid, high status job in the hearing world to lower paid job in the Deaf community] I would say my rst couple of days here it was like a culture shock because I was so used to being in a hearing community with the amount of discrimination there . . . its like coming home D/deaf young peoples own measures of successful transitions are therefore often not recognised by hearing people, even within their own families. Most notably while BSL opens up the ability of D/deaf people to communicate and express their own identities freely, many hearing families continue to judge D/deaf members in terms of their ability to communicate orally. As a result D/deaf people and their hearing parents often have differential understandings of the extent of their progression from a state of dependency to independence. For example, D/deaf young peoples limited participation in oral environments is often read as a lack of condence and competence. Both Carolyn and Jill describe the way that their identities are misread by hearing people. Carolyn: [Participation in the hearing world] . . . made me introvert, actually very, very quiet, very, very shy and not assertive at all. . . . I know Im a
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

117

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

lot more condent now thats because when Im with Deaf people about. Still with hearing people . . . I still can be quite introvert when we got married we had an interpreter at our wedding, and all my family came and they couldnt believe how many Deaf people were there who were signing away and they were quite amazed. I think it was because they never saw me, that side, because theyve always seen me talking to them, I never use sign language with them, and when they see me, or that particular side they were quite surprised and I think its helped them realise that Im actually you know . . . much happier in the Deaf community and theyve accepted that. . . . I never showed my real self with the whole family . . . Jill: Im a different person in both, in both worlds [D/deaf and hearing], yeah. I think in a hearing, in Deaf worlds I am my own person, in the hearing world I change and I try to keep things simple. I try and keep communication down to a minimum, you know dont socialise, communicate as much. However, a Deaf identity is not just something that can just be claimed by an individual, rather it also has to be ascribed by others. In this regard the Deaf community is no different from any other community. Indeed, as Young (1990) has argued the very notion of community tends to privilege the ideal of unity over difference. In particular groups often try to draw up boundaries to dene those who are insiders (i.e. part of the community) from those who are not, leading Cornwall (1984: 53) to observe: where there is belonging, there is also not belonging, and where there is in-clusion there is also ex-clusion. D/deaf people who can pass as hearing because of their oral communication skills, or who are strongly embedded in the hearing community and do not sign often struggle to be accepted as part of the Deaf community, being regarded as having a bad attitude or being a heae (Corker, 1996). Corker (1996: 200) explains: The Deaf community shows uid boundaries within, but its boundary with other communities is rigid and does not allow for easy movement in and out. This creates a very strong feeling of us and them, which is ultimately a consequence of oppression, though it may be attributed to cultural difference. The community does not easily tolerate coexistence of diverse elements in the wider deaf community, as evidenced by the difculty of gaining access to the Deaf community when in a state of transition or ambivalence about Deafness. In this way, experiences of oppression can paradoxically prompt marginalised groups to oppress others. Any exclusion is painful, but for deaf people who already feel marginalised within the hearing world not being fully accepted within the Deaf world (their family of choice) either can leave them painfully isolated, as these interviewees describe: 118
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms

Jill: Ive met some . . . friends of mine, you know theyve tried to t into the hearing world, you know . . . but they cant do it, and they end up, theyre not happy. And now I speak to them because theyve not learned how to sign, they dont t in the Deaf world either. You know, so theyre right, theyre on the cusp and caught in the middle and its awful, awful situation. But Im really glad, really fortunate that I , I learnt how to sign and I t in with the Deaf world and I can also communicate with hearing people. Eleanor: . . . making transition into Deaf world hard . . . with my family I t into my family world but I dont t into a hundred percent of the Deaf world, Im a hundred percent deaf in terms of my identity but not in terms of tting into the Deaf world because I dont agree with a lot of things that are held within the Deaf community, a lot of political issues, things like that, I dont agree with their views. Thus, while Deaf people who do not communicate orally are commonly read as having made failed transitions to independence in the hearing world, for D/deaf people like Tessa and Eleanor their successful transitions in the hearing world can be read as failure or at least a failing by some of the Deaf community. As such an increasing emphasis is being put on providing bi-cultural education (to develop oral and BSL forms of communication) for young D/deaf people in order to develop and support bi-cultural identities (Grosjean, 1992) and to challenge the polarisation of the Deaf and hearing worlds as experienced and described by the informants in this section.

Challenging normal transitions

This paper contributes to sociologies of youth through its focus on the experiences of a minority group who are normally overlooked in this eld, D/deaf young people. By focusing on these less usual experiences of making the transition from childhood we have developed, and nuanced, transition theory. Specically, in the rst half of this paper we focused on how D/deaf people negotiate conventional school-to-work, housing and domestic transitions. Supercially, the evidence of our research paints a picture of D/deaf peoples protracted dependence on hearing families because of the difculties that they have accessing information, making choices and resisting the ways that meanings are imposed on their experiences in the hearing world. Yet, paradoxically, dependency in this context does not necessarily hamper other conventional transitions but rather can support and facilitate D/deaf young peoples independence in other contexts. As such this research has contributed to sociological work on youth by demonstrating the need to look at transitions holistically, and to recognise the multi-directional nature and complexity of the relationships between different traditional transitions. Moreover, it has also illustrated
2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

119

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton

the importance of looking at the inter-relationships between different family members identities rather than assuming a uni-directional relationship between young people and their parents. In the second half of the paper we advance traditional understandings of sociological work on transitions by showing how D/deaf young peoples own denitions of the most signicant gauge of independence, and measures of successful or failed transitions, do not necessarily accord with the traditional events-based and institutional transitions that were discussed in part one of the paper. Nor do they necessarily occur within a xed age range. Rather, D/deaf young peoples emphasis on the importance of BSL and making the transition to an independent identity in the Deaf, instead of (or as well as) the hearing world, demonstrates the need for social scientists to broaden our understandings of transitionary processes and desirable outcomes away from normal measures of desirable pathways. This is perhaps best achieved through grounded research with young people themselves, that acknowledges their agency in dening and managing their own life transitions. At the same time this paper has sought to mainstream within sociology a rich body of research about D/deaf peoples experiences from the specic eld of Deaf studies. Such work is often overlooked because it is perceived to be specialist or dealing with a minority perspective, yet it offers researchers a different lens through which to view traditional sociological perspectives and, as this paper has tried to show, can shed new light on understandings of conventional sociological concepts.
University of Leeds and Loughborough University Received 5 August 2003 Finally accepted 24 February 2006

Notes
1 The names of all those quoted, and the people and places referred to in these quotations have been changed in an effort to protect their anonymity and condentiality. 2 Three interviews were conducted by Carol Devanney who was employed as a Research Assistant on this project (Jan-May, 2001). 3 We originally intended to video signed interviews so that these interview would be recorded in BSL, thus enabling the interpretation of the signs to be checked by the informant and interpreter. However, most of our informants were uncomfortable with being lmed and so we resorted to audio-tape recording of the BSL interpretation instead.

References
Allatt, P., (1993), Becoming privileged: the role of family processes, in Bates, I. and Riseborough, G. (eds) Youth and Inequality, Buckingham: Open University Press. Arnett, J.J., (1997), Young peoples conceptions of the transition to adulthood, Youth & Society, 29: 323. Beck, U., (1992), Risk Society, London: Sage.

120

2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E., (2002), Individualization, London: Sage. Branson, J. and Miller, D., (1993), Sign language, the deaf and the epistemic violence of mainstreaming, Language and Education, 7: 2141. Bullis, M., Davis, C., Bull, B. and Johnson, B., (1997), Expectations versus realities: Examination of the transition plans and experiences of adolescents who are Deaf and adolescents who are hearing, Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 40: 251264. Carty, B., (1994), The development of deaf identity, in Erting, C.J., Johnson, R.C., Smith, D.L. and Snider, B.D. (eds), The Deaf Way: Perspectives From the International Conference on Deaf Culture, Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press. Chisholm, L. and Du Bois-Reymond, M., (1993), Youth transitions, gender and social change, Sociology, 2: 25980. Cieslik, M. and Pollock, G., (eds) (2002), Young People in Risk Society: The Restructuring of Youth Identities and Transitions in Late Modernity, Hampshire: Ashgate. Coles, B., (1997), Welfare services for young people in Roche, J. and Tucker, S. (eds), Youth in Society: Contemporary Theory, Policy and Practice, London: Sage. Corker, M., (1996), Deaf Transitions: Images and Origins of Deaf Families, Deaf Communities and Deaf Identities, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Cornwall, J., (1984), Hard Earned Lives: Accounts of Health and Illness from East London, London, Tavistock. Craine, S., (1997), The Black Magic Roundabout: cyclical transitions, social exclusion and alternative careers in MacDonald, R. (ed.), Youth, the Underclass and Social Exclusion, London: Routledge. Decaro, J.J. and Egleston-Dodd, J., (1982), Towards a dialogue regarding careers for Deaf youth, Journal of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, 6: 154161. Densham, J., (1995), Deafness, Children and the Family, Aldershot: Area. Foster, S., (1996), Communication experiences of Deaf people: an ethnographic account in Parasnis, I. (ed.), Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Furlong, A. and Cartmel, F., (1997), Young People and Social Change: Individualization and Risk in Late Modernity, Buckingham: Open University Press, Buckingham. Gregory, S., Bishop, J. and Sheldon, L., (1995), Deaf Young People and Their Families, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Grosjean, F., (1992), The bilingual and bicultural person in the Hearing and Deaf world, Sign Language Studies, 77: 307320. Hale, S., (1997), The treatment of register variation in court interpreting, The Translator, 3: 3954. Hindley, P.A., (1994), Psychiatric disorder in Deaf and hearing impaired children and young people: a prevalence study, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35: 917934. Imrie, R., (1996), Disability and the City, London: Paul Chapman. Irwin, S., (1995), Social reproduction and change in the transition from youth to adulthood, Sociology, 29: 293315. Jones, G., (1995), Leaving Home, Buckingham: Open Univeristy Press. Jones, G. and Wallace, C., (1992), Youth, Family and Citizenship, Buckingham: Open University Press. Kruger, H-H., (1988), Geschichte und perspectiven der jugendforschung in Kruger, H-H. (ed.), Handbuch der jugendforschung, Opladen: Leske and Budrich. Kyle, J. and Woll, B., (1983), (eds), Language in Sign, London: Croom Helm. Kyle, J. and Woll, B., (1985), Sign Language: The Study of Deaf People and Their Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ladd, P., (1988), The modern deaf community, in Miles, D. (ed.), British Sign Language: A Beginners Guide, London: BBC Books: 2743. Ladd, P., (2003), Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood, Clevedon: Multi-Lingual Matters Ltd. Lane, H., (1984), When the Mind Hears, Random House: New York.

2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

121

Gill Valentine and Tracey Skelton Lane, H., (1997), Construction of Deafness, in Davis, L.J. (ed.), The Disability Studies Reader, London: Routledge. Lane, H., Hoffmeister, R. and Bahan, B., (1996), A Journey into the Deaf-World, Dawn Sign Press: San Diego. MacDonald, R., (1998), Youth transitions and social exclusion: some issues for youth research in the UK, Journal of Youth Studies, 1: 163176. Masten, A., (1994), Resilience in individual development: successful adaptation despite risk and adversity, in Wang, M.C. Gordon, E.W. (eds), Educational Resilience in Inner City America: Challenges and Prospects, Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum. Marshall, H. and Stenner, P., (1997), Friends and lovers, in Roche, J. and Tucker, S. (eds), Youth and Society, London: Sage. McDowell, L., (2002), Transitions to work: masculine identities, youth inequality and labour market change, Gender, Place and Culture, 9: 3959. Moorhead, D., (1995), Knowing who I am, in Gregory, S. (ed.) Deaf Futures Revised. Block 3, Unit D251 Issues in Deafness, Buckingham: Open University. Morrow, V. and Richards, M., (1996), Transitions to Adulthood: A Family Matter? York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation and YPS. Oliver, M. and Barnes, C., (1997), All we are saying is give disabled researchers a chance. Disability and Society, 12: 811813. Padden, C., (1980), The Deaf Community and the Culture of Deaf People, in Baker, C. and Battison, R. (eds), Sign Language and the Deaf Community: Essays in Honour of William Stokoe, Silver Springs, MD, National Association of the Deaf, USA. Reproduced in Gregory, S. and Hartley, G., (eds), (1991), Constructing Deafness, London: Pinter and the Open University. Padden, C. and Humphries, T., (1988), Deaf in America, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Powers, S., Gregory, S. and Thoutenhoofd, E., (1998), The Educational Achievements of Deaf Children, Dept. for Education and Employment Research Report, no. 65, London. Roberts, K., (1997), Structure and agency: the new research agenda, in Bynner, J., Chisholm, L. and Furlong, A. (eds), Youth, Citizenship and Social Change in a European Context, Hampshire: Ashgate. Rose, G., (1997), Situating knowledges: positionality, reexivities and other tactics, Progress in Human Geography, 21: 305320. Shakespeare, T., (1993), Disabled people self-organization: a new social movement, Disability, Handicap and Society, 8: 249264. Skelton, T., (2002), Research on youth transitions: some critical interventions, in Cieslik, M. and Pollock G. (eds), (2002), Young People in Risk Society: The Restructuring of Youth Identities and Transitions in Late Modernity, Hampshire: Ashgate. Smith, F.M., (1996), Problematising language: limitations and possibilities in foreign language research, Area, 28: 160166. Stanley, L. and Wise, S., (1992), Method, methodology and epistemology in feminist research process, in Stanley, L. (ed.), Feminist Praxis. London: Routledge. Sutton-Spence, R. and Woll, B., (1998), The Linguistics of British Sign Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Twyman, C., Morrison, J. and Sporton, D., (1999), The nal fth: autobiography, reexivity and interpretation in cross-cultural research, Area, 31: 313325. Valentine, G., (2002), People like us: negotiating sameness and difference in the research process, in Moss, P. (ed.), Feminist Geography in Practice, London: Blackwell. Valentine, G., (2005), Crossing boundaries: working with interpreters, paper available from the author. Valentine, G. and Skelton, T., (2003), Living on the edge: the marginalisation and resistance of D/deaf youth, Environment and Planning A, 35: 301321. Wallace, C. and Kovatcheva, S., (1998), Youth in Society: The Construction and Deconstruction of Youth in East and West Europe, Hampshire: Macmillan.

122

2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

Re-dening norms Watson, L., Gregory, S. and Powers, S., (1999), Deaf and Hearing Impaired Pupils in Mainstream Schools, London: David Fulton. Wyn, J. and Dwyer, P., (1999), New directions in research on youth in transition, Journal of Youth Studies, 2: 521. Young, I.M., (1990), The ideal of community and the politics of difference, in Nicholson, L.J. (ed.), Feminism/Postmodernism, London: Routledge. Young, A.M. and Ackerman, J., (2001), Reections on validity and epistemology in a study of working relations between Deaf and hearing professionals, Qualitative Health Research, 11: 179189.

2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

123