'I Am a Guide between Worlds': An Career Choice for Adult Children of Deaf Parents

Abstract

Hearing children of deaf parents (CODA) are a special social group whose socialization takes place in two cultures at the same time (hearing and deaf). On the one hand, CODAs learn the norms and values of the deaf community, including through the use of sign language, which for some of them even becomes their first language of communication. On the other hand, these children interact with hearing people while receiving education, communicating with others, or translating for their parents. This ambivalence can both provide CODAs with a unique professional experience and act as an additional barrier to career choice. This study, therefore, aims to answer the question of how the socialization experience of CODAs determines the career choice of people who grew up in such families. The analysis is based on 17 semi-structured interviews: 15 with hearing adult children from deaf families, aged 18 to 34, of different professions, gender, and education, and two expert interviews. As a result of the study, it was found that CODAs make their first career choice under the influence of the latent power of their parents. Parents transmit negative attitudes towards professions associated with the deaf community as unprestigious and poorly paid. However, CODAs also tend to make secondary career choices such as teaching deaf and deaf lawyers, interpreting RSL, i. e., 'coming home' to deaf culture, and taking on the role of mediator between the deaf and hearing communities. The evaluation of children’s direct experience of translating RSL as positive or negative does not determine the career choice of CODAs, while the main basis for choosing careers related to sign language translation is maintaining involvement in deaf culture, maintaining communication, and interacting with the deaf community.