Pakistan Sign Language Capacity Building in Punjab, Pakistan: assessment from a Five-Year Study

Abstract

Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) is very important for quality education and inclusive communication for children with hearing impaired. Although PSL is vital, historically, there has been a lack of consistency in the level of proficiency in PSL across the Public secotr in Punjab, poor pre-service preparation and almost no planned in-service professional development for teachers of hearing impaired students of differnt degree of loss. Government In-Service Teachers Training College in Lahore, for the Teachers of Disabled Children, launched a province-wide capacity building initiative from 2021 to 2026, to address these systemic deficiencies and to make teachers more proficient in PSL and also ensure standard practices in classrooms. The programme adopted a carefully designed four-phase structure, which included training master trainers, teacher training at the district level, competency assessment on a province-wide basis and intensive follow-up training for identified teacher professional development needs. This qualitative study, framed by an interpretivist research paradigm, grounded in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), explores the implementation process, outcomes, challenges and sustainability for the five-year PSL capacity-building initiative. The study highlights some critical threats to sustainability, such as lack of preparation of the initial master trainers, inconsistent administrative involvement, and failure to involve other staff members of the hearing impaired education system in PSL training, and suggests a comprehensive agenda for institutionalizing PSL professional development throughout the hearing impaired education system in Punjab.

Keywords: Pakistan Sign Language, PSL, Hearing Impairment, Professional Development