Teaching hearing impaired pupils in mainstream schools: perceived challenges and possibilities in three English classes

Abstract: This work examines the situation of hearing impaired students in Swedish mainstream upper-secondary schools, with special focus on English classes. According to the Swedish Curriculum all students should be offered an equivalent education, based on participation and community within the public school system. Although students with a disability have the same right to receive a satisfactory education it is not yet clear how this will be achieved with students with a hearing impairment. The authors, through semi-structured interview, ask three teachers and two pupils about how they perceive their situation when teaching, respectively learning English. The qualitative study shows the difficulties in the integration process of the hearing impaired students, in particular the obstacles these students face when socializing with their peers and the shortage of sufficient assistive devices, as well as pedagogical and didactic support.