This paper discusses how vocational and professional perspectives of teaching deaf learners may influence teaching and learning in residential special schools for the Deaf in Zimbabwe. We argue in this paper that it is the hearing pedagogues' responsibility and obligation to reflect on how their vocational and professional dispositions may have a bearing on teaching practice and learning outcomes. We believe that an understanding of the influence of these dispositions on personal practice is essential if Deaf education is to move forward in these schools that were established as asylums within a charitable colonial ethos.