Examining the Emergence of Learning Disabilities in India and the Dilemma of Difference

• In Event: Whose Truth? Theoretical Considerations for Disability Studies in Education

Abstract

Based on a qualitative research study of document analysis, classroom observations, and interviews with teachers, diagnostic clinicians, and parents, this presentation situates the origin and development of learning disabilities in India within the larger context of international development and globalization. Using postcolonial and disability studies lenses, it examines the process by which academically struggling students are labeled learning disabled, and in particular, the implications of the global demand for English-speaking skills on low-income students who are learning English for the first time in school. It concludes that students who are being identified by teachers and psychologists are not necessarily cognitively or neurologically impaired, but are disabled by social constructions of what constitutes a learning disability and school failure.

Author

• Maya Kalyanpur, University of San Diego
  Presenting Author