“There is no typical day as a Fulbrighter... you need to approach it not just as “What I can do?” but “What can I do with others?” and view your engagement with this guiding philosophy. ”
In February 2020, Joel Runnels, a current doctoral candidate at the University of North Dakota, traveled to Ghana as a Fulbright Specialist to co-develop an instructional video on Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) and d/Deaf education with the University of Ghana.
Having faced challenges growing up with a pronounced speech impediment, Runnels developed an early bond with his local Deaf Community and a fluency in American Sign Language that has since led to a 20-year career working to support greater inclusion of people with disabilities throughout the African continent.
We recently caught up with Runnels to hear more about his Fulbright Specialist experience, and how he and his host colleagues at the University of Ghana hope to inspire a new generation of educators to work with the d/Deaf and hard of hearing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
World Learning: Tell us a bit about the University of Ghana’s goals for this project and your role there as a Specialist.
Joel Runnels: I was there to help the university put ideas into action. This project was suggested by a faculty member in the University of Ghana’s Department of Linguistics who had been running a series of GSL classes to introduce students to sign language and get them interested in sign language. It is a great idea and a great class, but what he was lacking was having engaging, multimedia components.
This [Introduction to GSL video] is what I focused on developing with my host institution as a Fulbright Specialist so that it’s not just someone lecturing, but students have exposure to multimedia elements that stimulate their interest, make them want to stay with the class and learn sign language and bring it out into the working world, or wherever they are, to better include the d/Deaf and hard of hearing. This video also wove in a lot of historical information about where GSL came from, to provide some historical and foundational information that was previously lacking.
Runnels working with Napolean Mensah, a University of Ghana alumni, on video narration.
Image description: Two men, the Specialist and his Ghanaian colleague, speak to each other while sitting at the corner of a wooden table. In front of them are a laptop and several papers.
What we were able to develop, which was a 30 to 40-minute video-based teaching tool, was much more than what had been available before. So, I would say along with being an ambitious project it was also innovative. No one as far as we know has made this kind of instructional video in Ghana, so it is also a model and an example and we can see this Fulbright Specialist project as a start instead of an end. Ultimately, the hope is that this will be just one of a series of videos.
World Learning: That’s interesting that you wove in this foundation of historical understanding of the origin of GSL into the video as well.
Runnels: This is something that, in the United States, you just assume that when you have a 101 or an introductory course that you are going to get foundational information. What we don’t see is all the work that needs to go into creating that so this was one of the pieces that was missing for GSL, which can lead to misunderstanding. For example, you might assume that because it is sign language, it is international, but no language is truly international. So, this is also a video that explores these sorts of issues.
World Learning: What was a typical day like for you as a Fulbright Specialist?
Runnels: There is no typical day as a Fulbrighter, but as a Fulbright Specialist you’re also a sort of project manager. You need to approach it not just as “What I can do?” but “What can I do with others?” and view your engagement with this guiding philosophy. A typical day could be to identify the colleagues you can work with on certain goals or tasks and also strengthen those relationships. Each day I would wake up and think: “What are all the pieces that I need to have in place today? What is a Plan A or a Plan B? I should have a backup.”
World Learning: It sounds as though across the Fulbright Program, Fulbrighters are demonstrating flexibility, understanding and a commitment to developing relationships. What are some of the skills or characteristics that you had to lean on the most to be a successful Fulbright Specialist?
Runnels: It’s all of that and then what I would call cultural fluency. We can have fluency in a language which is great, but we need to develop a cultural fluency too. You need to be able to work with whatever happens and stay positive. So, for example, not having reliable electricity in Accra - this is another thing that we often take for granted in the United States. Can you imagine making a video if you do not always have a reliable source of electricity - how is that possible? If we arrive in the morning and the lights are out, you don’t have a number or anything to fix it - they will come on when they come on.
You need to ask yourself this question about unexpected situations like this: how would you feel and how would you manage that? Cultural fluency is understanding that this is the environment that you are working with and to reconcile that. In this example, we might have a script we’ve developed, but the script was written in English and my colleague is presenting it in GSL. So that right there requires a lot of rehearsal and we can rehearse that in this moment.
Runnels worked with Marco Nyarko (right), a GSL tutor at the University of Ghana who is Deaf, and a team of volunteer students and alumni to develop this resource.
Image description: Marco Nyarko, a Ghanaian tutor at the University of Ghana who is Deaf, signs while standing in front of a blue backdrop. In the foreground, a male Ghanaian student videotapes Marco using a smartphone, while a female Ghanaian student looks on over his shoulder.
World Learning: Part of the University of Ghana’s request was that you train and work with Ghanaian counterparts to create this video - why was that important for the project?
Runnels: No one, as far as we know, has made an instructional video like this at the University of Ghana, so it was vital to transfer those technical skills. In this case, I worked with a d/Deaf Ghanaian who is employed in the Department of Linguistics. For example, he was the one who translated our script from English into GSL. I also worked with him to arrange and set up everything with the video camera and arranging everything so on and so forth.
World Learning: I understand that you yourself are a person with a disability. How did your personal lived experiences inform your work in Ghana?
Runnels: We have these lived experiences that help us step inside of and walk in the shoes of others. So, I hear, I speak, but because of my own challenges with speech, I can in some senses empathize with the frustration that the d/Deaf have in trying to be understood by others. I hear, so I cannot say that I am d/Deaf or hard of hearing. But what I can say is that I do have experiences, related to how others treat persons with disabilities in general, that enable me to empathize in ways that others may not. That is an extra insight that I bring that other participants could not bring.
It is also interesting, I’ll add, because as a person working professionally with the Deaf community, they might not necessarily be immediately aware that I often struggle with my own speech. It’s not like I stop and explain, “Hey, my speech is like this and like that.” They don’t care because it does not affect our signed communications. Either way, it is something that informs my work.
World Learning: What’s next for you and your host institution?
Runnels: I know they have plans to expand what they are doing with the Deaf Studies Program, like having a Center of Deaf Studies. They had envisioned this video as a step towards expanding in that way. With COVID, they are waiting to see if they can fully reopen during their first term in September. So, I am still in touch with them and would like to do more to support that expansion.