Action Research Cycles

ACTION RESEARCH CYCLES

Cycle 1

For my first cycle I created two videos with the help of NADH. The first video I created was on how the ear works, and reasons why someone is born deaf. All of which were medical reasons, or caused by medications. I sent the videos to Laxmi Devkota, the President of NADH, as well as a survey. The second video was of a member of NADH signing the Nepali Alphabet. The videos and surveys were also sent to the leader of the Telecenter in the village of Sankhu.

Survey 1

Name?

What village do you live in?

What village were you born in?

How often do you use the Telecenter?

What are the types of technology you use every week?

Do you have any deaf family members?

If you answered yes, where do they live? How old are they?

Why do you think someone is born deaf?

Have you ever communicate with a deaf person?

If you answered yes, how do you communicate with them?

You are interested in learning why someone is born deaf?

Would you want to learn how to communicate with a deaf person or family member?

For the first cycle, it was really important to figure out what types of technology people used and how often they used the telecenter because people need to be able to access the YouTube channel. Also, if people are not interested in technology then that could cause them to not be interested in watching the videos at all. I found that the people in the city of Kathmandu were more familiar with other technologies than cell phones, and were the most willing to watch the video. I hoped for 10 surveys to be filled out in Sankhu, but only received 4. All 4 surveys came from people who help operate the telecenter. The Survey that was sent to NADH was filled out by the requested number of people mostly due to their everyday access to computers and iPads. My main focus of the survey was to see why Nepali's thought people were born deaf. This was the most interesting because of one specific response. One of the survey participants stated that she is deaf and when she was pregnant, she could not communicate appropriately with the doctor. While at the hospital the doctor did a procedure that caused her baby to be born deaf. There is no evidence of that being true, but it was the only medical response I have recieved. The other data showed that most participants viewed being deaf as a punishment of bad karma from the parents of the deaf person, or that something was wrong with the baby during pregnancy.

Reflection:

I have learned that communicating with a developing country is hard, not only because of the language barrier, but because I assumed that because the telecenter members, and organization members agreed to participate in the project, filling out the surveys and making the videos would be easy and quickly completed. That was definitely not the case. There were periods where I did not hear from the organization, or the telecenter, which was extremely stressful. Not being in Nepal to conduct this study has made it harder for me to complete the research as perfectly as I wanted it to be. It was very hard knowing I was not in control of the participants interest in completing my deadlines.

The answers for the question of why people are born deaf were really surprising form NADH. I thought that they would be more medically based than based on the karma stereotype because all of the participants had a deaf friend, or family member. The technology results were exactly what I assumed. I already knew the struggle the villages have with being exposed to technologies, and that most people only have a cell phone .

Cycle 2

For the second cycle, I sent the first survey and videos to a trekking company in Kathmandu, as well as a second survey. I also sent the second survey to the Sankhu telecenter, and NADH. I invited people from the city and other villages to watch the videos and take both surveys on Facebook.

Survey 2 Nepali Translation

Was the video easy to understand?

Do you know think differently about deaf people?

Do you want to learn now how to talk to deaf people?

why do you think someone is born deaf now?

Are you going to share the videos with other people?

Quantitative Data:

There have been 57 viewsl of the videos total and 4 likes.

VIDEOS:

About a week after the Surveys went out the earthquake hit Nepal leaving the Country in shambles. I have only been able to reach the people in Kathmandu. I have unfortunately not heard anything from the village of Sankhu. I received a feedback on the second survey from three people that live in Kathmandu. This caused me to have to come up with a different way to collect data. Focusing on the question of why are people born deaf, all three participants thought that people are born deaf as a punishment from poor karma from the parents. The most interesting thing is after seeing the video of how your ears work, and why someone is born deaf, the participants still thought that the medical complications were due to Karma from the deaf person's parents. The important result though, was after watching the video of the Nepali citizen signing the alphabet two out of three participants were interested in learning how to communicate with a deaf person.

Survey 1, Response 1, Questions 1,2,9, and 12

1. What is your name?

-My name is Paru Shrestha

2. What village do you live in?

-I live in Pukhulachhi, Kathmandu

9. Why do you think one is born deaf?

-I think the person is born the way of being deaf because the parents of them are being punished for the past.

12. Are you interested in learning why or how someone is born deaf?

-Yes, I always being wonder to know them that how have happened it.

Survey 2, Response 1, Questions 2,3, and 4

1. Do you know think differently about deaf people

- No I have always thought deaf people are very nice

2. Do you want to learn now how to talk to deaf people

-Yes, it would be great to learn how to communicate with a deaf person, or family member.

3. why do you think someone is born deaf now.

- I know now that a deaf person is born because of something being wrong with them like disease probably from bad past.

Reflection:

The results made me realize how beliefs are hard to change, especially when you have trouble communicating with someone. I thought that the video was explained in a way where people would stray away from the belief of karma being a reason why people were born deaf. It never crossed my mind to think that giving medical reasons on why someone is deaf would still be a conclusion from karma. The earthquake happening was also very sad and stressful in many ways. I was concerned for the safety of all of the parties involved with the research. NADH was able to get in touch with me that they would not be able to create future videos, or fill out the surveys in the requested time of the deadline, and I had not heard from the trekking company, or the telecenter in Sankhu. This is still worrisome because I do not know if they are safe, or not! I realized I had to come up with another way to get data as well. This was the most unexpected thing to happen! I have learned more from the process of the research than from the conclusion of the surveys.

Cycle 3

For the third cycle, since filling out the survey was no longer an option, I reached out to 3 people to gather data by setting up a short interview via email and Facebook messenger. I recieved 1 response from via email from Ramita Shrestha, from the village of Sankhu.

Reflection:

This Interview gives more confimation that the stereotype of people being born with a hearing disability is due to bad karma from parents. Also it gives confirmation that the videos can help the people of Nepal think differntly about the deaf community. Ramita's advice about having videos of deaf people doing normal activities might encourage the thought of breaking the steroetype even more. I do wish I had more responses, but I am happy with the results that I have collected.

Conclusion:

My main findings were:

1. People are misinformed about why people are born deaf which causes them to have unequal treatment.

2. Even tough the videos will help encourage people to learn more about why people are born deaf, they still believe that the complications come from bad karma from the parents.

3. The signing video did encourage people to want to learn how to communicate with deaf people.