As a new graduate straight out of teacher’s college, I knew that York University’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teacher Education program offered exactly the next step I needed. The program was much more intense than teacher’s college, with an amazing focus on the fundamentals of hearing and how we learn through language. Sitting in a designated room in Vanier Hall complete with accessible features five days a week, we were taught strategies and skills necessary to provide our future students with accessibility to learning. The instructors challenged our thinking on education and how to support learning for a student who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing. The knowledge and skills I took away from that year in 1999, I still value and re-evaluate today albeit with a different perspective because of my many experiences and accrued knowledge over the years.
I have enjoyed experiences in a variety of roles, mainly within Deaf Education – as a classroom teacher in a signing self-contained class in a hearing school, as an itinerant teacher, as a homevisiting teacher, and then the past 10 years as an educational consultant with the Ministry of Education.
Working as an educational consultant of the DHH has been a gift. It has allowed me to connect with educators, students, parents, and professionals from post-secondary institutions and service providers all over the province. I have worked with educational officers and policy advisors from other Ministries and Ministry Branches. This work has allowed me to see how beautiful Ontario is and its many people. I have been fortunate to work with amazing people within Deaf Education on committees and projects that have supported the student who is DHH.
Throughout this journey, the field of Deaf Education has changed drastically, for example, cochlear implants and the birth of the Infant Hearing Program. These changes prompted questions. These curiosities brought me back to York to complete a Master’s in Education in 2009, and then a PhD in 2017. My Master’s research was published in the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education in 2010: Language Development in a Hearing and a Deaf Twin with Simultaneous Bilateral Cochlear Implants. I then presented my PhD research, Literacy Development in School-Aged Children with Simultaneous Bilateral Cochlear Implants, at conferences. My passion is research, and I hope to explore more in the years to come.
This is all to say that my York experience made me a stronger person and educator. It also brought me many friendships I still hold dear today.
Caterina Ruggirello, Ph.D., OCT