Deaf Leadership Immersion - Curriculum

This course provides an introduction to ethical theories, concepts, and practices as they relate to community development and inclusive leadership. Some of the topics in this course include: ethical definitions and ethical literacy, individual and group ethics, ethical principles and codes of practice, moral reasoning and behavior, ethical decision-making formats, leadership and followership, intersectionality, and accessibility. These topics will be approached through the use of ethical theories, including: Utilitarianism, Deontology/Kant’s Categorical Perspective, Rawl’s Justice as Fairness, Aristotelian, Confucianism, and Altriusm. Students will learn how to apply these theories using a pluralistic approach. With a focus on ethical leadership experiences and decision-making, students will engage in self-analysis and reflection to develop a deeper ethical self-awareness and cultural awareness in this course. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

This course will provide an introduction of legal and educational policies that impact the Deaf community. The course will focus on the national and state legislative and policy making structures and processes, the Americans with Disabilities Act and related laws policy. Against the broad background of current legal policy, the course will also focus on the various styles of leadership within a range of educational settings including but not limited to: early identification and intervention, K – 12, post-secondary, and adult. This course will involve learning about educational laws and policies, including the analysis and development of mock policies. In addition, students will gain a broad understanding of how advocacy, lobbying, and political movements can lead to successful and positive results regarding the education of Deaf and hard of hearing students. (Prerequisites: LEAD-101 and LEAD-102 or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

Students master the elements of rhetoric and become adept at strategies for successfully conveying valuable knowledge and a leadership vision that persuades readers and motivates organizations. Beyond the Aristotelian rules of communication, students learn powerful and innovative techniques drawn from multiple sources, including media and visual narratives. Each student produces written projects and oral presentations, and each student receives critical feedback and individual support as well as workshop team input and top visitor expertise. Through exploration of rhetorical perspectives and practices of leadership, students will be able to understand, analyze, and evaluate rhetoric’s potential relationships to experiences and practices of contemporary leadership. Furthermore, students will demonstrate ability to engage in rhetorical leadership by adopting at least one communication strategy to connect with their intended audiences. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

This course focuses on social media technologies and communication used by leaders and organizations in the United States and globally. Students will examine various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and evaluate the security, privacy, ethics, and accessibility possibilities for each. Through experiential learning, students will build their own social media brands, content, and hashtags, using current trends, theories, and tools, including tools of accessibility and inclusion, to welcome a diverse network of followers. An analysis of how social media technologies have impacted organizational development, political activism, social justice, the economy, and news consumption, will inform students about social media advantages and disadvantages, as well as etiquette, best practices, and do’s and don’ts. This course will provide students with the opportunity to experience how people with various disabilities access social media to guide management on best practices in accessibility, and review case studies of diversity and inclusion in social media to engage with followers/audiences from various cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. Lecture 3 (Fall or Spring).

Leaders of social justice movements work towards visions of a better world—one that dismantles systemic barriers and injustices. This course will turn to intersectional fiction writing to examine how literature can contribute to social justice movements. In other words, we will ask how reading literatures of intersectionality may foster social justice movements. In doing so, we will situate contemporary intersectional literature in their historical contexts—looking to the theory and writing of feminist women-of-color, queer studies, disability studies, Indigenous studies, and Deaf studies. We will read some of these theories as literature and literature as theory—with attention to interlocking forms of oppression and privilege. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

The challenges and opportunities for deaf community development vary from one country to another. This course focuses on the skills and best practices for deaf community leaders to implement in their countries of origin. Students will be introduced to international laws that support deaf and their communities. The achievements of past and current international deaf community leaders will be studied and used as a model for identifying the needs of communities and mobilizing community action. This course is designed for international and domestic students who are committed to making positive organizational changes. (Prerequisites: LEAD-306 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

This course will introduce historical and current issues regarding leadership and the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) community. Students will learn about D/HH leaders in the Deaf community over the years, examine movements that have impacted the lives of D/HH individuals, and finally, learn about influential organizations of, by, and for D/HH individuals. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

This course equips students with tools for understanding principles and uses of accessible technologies, such as captioned media, mobile applications, and voice recognition software, with a focus on how deaf and hard-of-hearing leaders and organizations work to ensure access to communication. This course is built on the framework of access as a continual process in which users advocate for the needs of their community. This course establishes the legal requirements that mandate access technologies, such as captioned media, and reviews how leaders have campaigned for increased access to media. These underlying principles inform the course’s overriding exploration of the benefits and limitations of current technologies that may not be fully accessible; how current leaders and leading organizations utilize access technologies to facilitate signed, spoken, and written communication; and current work on the next generation of access technologies. The readings, assignments, and discussions in this course will encourage students to recognize how access technologies can support individuals as well as how leaders can serve as advocates who work to fight for improved access to communication and other resources in their communities. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

This course includes an overview of the current trends in community development and leadership. Content includes best practices and topics for community development and leadership, as well as pertinent laws, policies, resources and information. Students will participate in and critique a designated set of lectures, roundtable discussions and presentations on topics covering current trends in community development and inclusive leadership. The goal is to engage students in discussion of current trends with their peers and with experts in the field. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).