Abstract

All children have the right to education that meets their needs and aims to enable them full integration in their society. Education should guarantee all children an equal chance to actively participate in society regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or disability (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989). Yet sophisticated mechanisms within educational structures marginalize children from poor backgrounds, ethnic origins, race, gender and disability to the same social status they were born into (Freire, 1970; Shor & Freire, 1987; Giroux, 1997). This article highlights the characteristics of oppressive education, education that intends to give equal opportunities to all but in practice short cut children from marginalized groups. Oppression of different marginalized groups, whether political groups, working-class groups, racial, national, ethnical gendered groups or ones with a disability, manifest similar characteristics. Cases become more complicated when certain children belong to multiple circles of oppressed groups: such is the case of a Deaf Bedouin girl, for example. This article illustrates some of these oppression mechanisms through the case of Deafii education in Israel. It will point out the way Deafness is constructed via education. Critical pedagogy concepts have been applied to analyze the manifestation of these mechanisms in Deaf formal and informal educational systems; while relying on theories of Disability Studies, as well.