Swimming Upstream: Reframing Conceptualizations of Learning Disability in an Independent School—A Student-Led Critical Examination of Self and System

• In Event: Issues in Postsecondary Education

Abstract

Private schools can be unwelcoming environments for students with “learning disabilities” who “swim upstream” against inordinate challenges. In this study, an 11th grade student, John, developed and implemented a student-led investigation to understand how he was experienced as a student with “learning disabilities” and how he may have influenced the views and practices of his teachers. Several themes emerged from teacher interviews such as teachers existing in a novice stage for LD, accommodations can drive student success, teachers’ desire for openness about learning needs, a shift in belief system towards LD support, and profiling of “right” LD students. This study contributes to the larger discourse on students with “learning disabilities” and has implications for the restructuring of private schools.

Authors

• John Dean, Germantown Academy

• Andy Danilchick, University of Pennsylvania

• Kimberly Dean, Arcadia University