The Rise and Fall of the "Promise of ADHD": Family Narrative on a Child's Adverse School Trajectory

• In Event: 68.042 - Narrative Perspectives for Negotiating In/between Dis/ability, Labels, and Schooling

Abstract

Located in the intersection of the disciplines of disability studies and special education, this discourse analysis paper explores meanings given to an ADHD membership category by one Finnish girl diagnosed with ADHD and her parents regarding the child’s unfortunate school trajectory. This paper illustrate (a) how the parents strongly adhered to psychomedical discourse in explaining their child’s educational achievement, (b) how family members constructed conflicting identity categories (‘ADHD-student’ Vs. ‘Normal student’), and (c) how these identity categories were strongly interconnected with school practices. This paper questions educational policies, practices and discourses that uncritically rush to explain perceived problems in ‘normal’ achievement by individual characteristics and psychopathology, special educational needs, and the use of the language of deficit, disability and disorder.

Author

• Juho Honkasilta, University of Jyväskylä