Experiences, networks and uncertainty: parenting a child who uses a cochlear implant
2016 (English)Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
The aim of this dissertation project is to describe the ways people experience parenting a deaf child who uses a cochlear implant. Within a framework of social science studies of disability this is done by combining approaches using ethnographic and netnographic methods of participant observation with an interview study. Interpretations are based on the first-person perspective of 19 parents against the background of their related networks of social encounters of everyday life. The netnographic study is presented in composite conversations building on exchanges in 10 social media groups, which investigates the parents’ meaning-making in interaction with other parents with similar living conditions. Ideas about language, technology, deafness, disability, and activism are explored. Lived parenting refers to the analysis of accounts of orientation and what 'gets done' in respect to these ideas in situations where people utilize the senses differently. In the results, dilemmas surrounding language, communication and cochlear implantation are identified and explored. The dilemmas extend from if and when to implant, to decisions about communication modes, intervention approaches, and schools. An important finding concerns the parents’ orientations within the dilemmas, where most parents come up against antagonistic conflicts. There are also examples found of a development process in parenting based on lived, in-depth experiences of disability and uncertainty which enables parents to transcend the conflictive atmosphere. This process is analyzed in terms of a social literacy of dis/ability.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Education, Stockholm University , 2016. , p. 343
Series
Doktorsavhandlingar från Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik ; 45
Keywords [en]
parenting, parents, cochlear implant, first-person perspective, lifeworld, netnographic, everyday life, orientation, deaf, disability, sign language, allyship, social literacy
National Category
Pedagogy
Research subject
Education
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-134901ISBN: 978-91-7649-541-4 (print)ISBN: 978-91-7649-542-1 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-134901DiVA, id: diva2:1039539
Public defence
2016-12-16, Stora Hörsalen, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, Frescativägen 40, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
2016-11-232016-10-242022-02-28Bibliographically approved