Deaf Academic Leader's Perspective: A Proposed Framework for Decision-Making Process in Higher Education for Deaf Students

This article examines the question, “How do the intersectional relationships between the dual process, heuristic/bias, and decision-making models manifest in an educational leader’s decision-making framework when the leader possesses a deaf lens?” Perceptions that could have an emotional impact on the decision-making process are shared. Research in the field is discussed and supplemented by the author’s perspectives, experiences, and document analysis to articulate a proposed framework. The goal of implementing the proposed framework is to increase the probability of obtaining better decisions, given that educational leaders with deaf lenses tend to be visually receptive learners who depend on personal and professional philosophy and experience. The selected perceptions and phrases from the intersectional relationship categories forming the proposed framework were based on: A) information (sought and processing), B) time (as phase), and C) emotional responses. In this article, explored is the perspective of an educational leader with a deaf lens that led to potential influences upon the decision-making processes and validation of a new framework. However, the implication of this was that no single decision model is necessary the correct model or is responsible for any outcome. More significantly, the work demonstrated the proposed framework is to help other educational leaders with a deaf lens improve their knowledge, understanding, and perspective of their decisions since those decisions impact stakeholders. This framework and expertise can be beneficial to prospective educational leaders.