Medicine and Deaf Education in Japan: the Meiji Period,1868-1912, and Today (360G-Wellcome-096703_Z_11_Z)

This proposed research has two key goals: to understand how the 'Westernization' of medicine and education during the Meiji Period affected deaf Japanese and to grasp the extent to which the current educational situation reflects ideologies from this historical turning point. The first step is to conduct in-depth historical research into transformations in both the medical and educational systems during the Meiji Period. Extensive medical and educational archival research and a critical review of other primary and secondary sources would be conducted. As Japan has a rich oral culture, it could prove extremely beneficial to interview descendants of deaf Japanese who were educated during the Meiji Period. In order to evaluate contemporary deaf education, participant observation at a deaf school would be undertaken. This would involve observing deaf students in the classroom setting as well as conducting in-depth interviews with deaf students and their educators. In addition, a critical review of the recent literature on deaf education would be done. The final step would be to compare, contrast, and critically discuss Meiji Period attitudes toward the deaf and the contemporary deaf student's experience to determine the extent to which deaf schools today reflect the negotiation of Western and Japanese ideologies.