ABSTRACT
This chapter describes three dominant themes relating importantly to deaf students' learning in postsecondary environments. They are: the affirmation of reflective and phenomenological orientations in learning and in research on learning, the influence of feminist inquiry on the construction of knowledge, especially in young adults, and the more careful examination of the role of social and political consciousness in intellectual development. The chapter explores these three orientations and describes their influence on conceptions of learning. The dominant role of language and language development in the deaf person's educational history similarly demands exploration, reflection, and resolution. These sometimes-competing priorities for deaf learners in young adulthood are formidable ones. The use of personal, biographical experience in the classroom is essential for students and teachers who are from different cultures and backgrounds. At the postsecondary level, the phrase 'experientially deprived,' applied to deaf learners, is particularly inappropriate.
