This research study investigated the relationship between teachers' understanding of the theoretical principles underlying the Van Dijk Curriculum for students labelled deaf-blind and teachers' implementation of related instructional strategies. This study was conducted at the Rafael School located on the campus of the Instituut voor Doven, a school for deaf children, in The Netherlands. Six teachers who were specifically trained for at least three years in the Van Dijk Curriculum at the Rafael School were observed and interviewed during an academic school year. A comprehensive system was developed to examine the dynamic relationship between teachers' understanding and implementation. Using qualitative research methodology, teacher implementation was documented through observations and teacher understanding was documented through interviews. A systematic coding procedure was used to analyze the data. In general, the findings indicated that a relatively consistent relationship was found between teacher understanding and implementation for five of the six teachers. The one exception was a teacher who demonstrated that she understood the theory underlying the curriculum but was not a high implementor of the related instructional strategies. Possible explanations regarding this particular teacher's incongruent relationship of understanding and implementation are presented. This study demonstrates that a systematic procedure can be developed to investigate the relationship of a curricular theory applied to practice. Furthermore, this study provides insight into how teachers' understanding of theory translates into practice. The particular conditions and circumstances under which the relationship of teachers' understanding and implementation was investigated in this study suggest that a shared philosophy, a theory-based curricular model with integrated strategies, and ongoing staff collaboration and administrative support seem to impact this dynamic relationship.

Traditionally vocational rehabilitation has as its goal providing services to support individuals with disabilities to achieve outcomes that relate to employment and independent functioning so that they may live self-sufficient and empowered lives. The current research discusses models of empowerment among varied marginalized groups identifying its components and dimensions, but little is known about how learners perceive and experience empowerment. This qualitative case study brought the voices of 18 adult learners who are deaf-blind into the conversation and examined the instructional practices and experiences that were reportedly empowering among learners while participating in vocational rehabilitation. The study revealed learners’ interpretations of their experiences, motivations, insights, and challenges during their vocational rehabilitation journey. The study illuminated how learners perceived empowerment and identified six elements of the experience. In addition, learners shed light on six elements of the learning context that were worthy of consideration among learners and practitioners for optimizing the learning experience. Emergent themes surfaced regarding the relationship between empowerment-based practice and transformative learning. The change reportedly undergone by learners encompassed the whole person: affective, cultural, social, practical, political, and spiritual domains. Preliminary investigation into the distinctive pathways to empowerment among deaf-blind adult learners provided a unique perspective by learners on how they made meaning and navigated their new reality of combined vision and hearing loss. Recommendations to practitioners and learners are derived from the 18 voices of learners who participated in the study. The study also revealed a need to further investigate the link between transformative learning and empowerment-based practice and how these two theoretical frameworks might inform one another with implications for practice.

Group-level differences in classroom language environments were analyzed to better understand implementation of best practices with learners with deafblindness (DB), and whether state certification practices, student characteristics or specialized training related to differences in adult language modeling. Participants came from four states with three distinct teacher certification policies. Data was collected from 15 teacher-student dyads through behavioral coding of videotaped language samples from classrooms, teacher surveys and Communication Matrix assessments. In our sample, teachers used verbal communication significantly more than additional classroom staff. Teachers in a state that required a severe/ profound certification used significantly higher rates of visual communication. These teachers were also the most likely to match their students’ expected receptive modalities. Classroom staff in a state with interveners used significantly more tactile communication with learners. Overall, teachers were more likely to match their students’ expected receptive modalities when the students had higher levels of communication. The students with DB were highly heterogeneous and there was no association between level of dual sensory loss and students’ expressive communication levels. Discussion focused on whether our current use of communication modalities are sufficient, or whether more diverse language modeling (i.e., augmented input) would be beneficial in classrooms with learners with DB. These quantitative results can empower teachers to advocate for the use of specific communication modalities, such as American Sign Language, and trained personnel, such as interveners, in their districts.