Eva Hjörne

There Is Something About Julia: Symptoms, Categories, and the Process of Invoking Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the Swedish School: A Case Study

The problem of how to handle diversity is a prominent feature of modern schooling. Historical evidence indicates that the explanations of student problems of accommodating to schooling have varied. At present, neuropsychiatric diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are widely used as interpretations of what constitutes the background of school difficulties. The aim of this article is to report findings from an empirical study of how and when such categories are introduced in practice. The data have been generated by documenting pupil welfare team meetings (PWTM) during 1 year. The results show that in the context of the PWTM, the ADHD diagnosis is invoked to account for a wide range of problems that are described in contradictory terms by the staff. The category serves as an element in an accounting practice that focuses on the child, and his or her inner characteristics, rather than, for instance, the circumstances, including the pedagogical challenges experienced leading up to the problems observed. It is argued that the category serves as a rhetorical device that creates a common understanding of school difficulties for school staff, parents, and other actors, and that simultaneously transforms multifaceted problems into organic dysfunctions. Key words: institutional discourse, education, communication, learning disabilities, categorization, identity

Defining Student Diversity: Categorizing and Processes of Marginalization in Swedish Schools.

The article presents an analysis of how diversity is defined and attended to in Swedish schools. The research reported has been carried out as a case study of categorizing practices that concern the uses of neuropsychiatric diagnoses, notably ADHD. The data were collected as part of a larger study. The interaction over a two-year period between the parents of a boy (William, aged 5.5 years) and representatives of the school (school psychologist, principal, teacher etc.) has been analysed. It is shown that parents and professionals provide different accounts of William’s difficulties. The parents, while not denying that their son causes problems in class, argue that the boy will mature and that the problems will disappear. The representatives of the school try to convince the parents that a neuropsychiatric examination of the boy will be beneficial to all parties. The long process of negotiation can be understood as a rhetorical drama, where the category ‘ADHD’ serves as the resolution of a complex institutional problem in the modern welfare state.

The narrative of special education in Sweden: History and trends in policy and practice

ABSTRACT Access to public education that provides equal opportunities for all is a democratic right for every person living in Sweden. In addition, every child should as far as possible be included in the mainstream school. An official story that is taken for granted in Sweden is that an extremely low proportion of children are in need of special support, since there is no categorisation system in the official statistics. However, the results from the interviews of a number of key informants in the Swedish school system and several research studies show the opposite; the proportion of children categorised in practice as being in need of special support has increased dramatically, especially the group of children assigned with neuropsychiatric diagnoses for example Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This paper explores the implications of growing segregation of children with special educational needs for the idea of an inclusive education system.

After exclusion what

This special issue grew out of a symposium held at the University of Gothenburg in March 2013 and builds on a collaboration between the Schools of Education at the University of Edinburgh and the U...

Assessing Children in the Nordic Countries: Framing, Diversity and Matters of Inclusion and Exclusion in a School for All

Recent tendencies within assessment in comprehensive school in Nordic countries raise the question of the role of different practices of assessments, on how assessments are being used, for which purposes and the consequences of this. Assessments can be considered to be an integrated part of formal educational settings, in different forms and used for different purpose. In the chapter we will discuss and analyse the use of assessments in comprehensive school in the Nordic countries through time, as we will include different kinds of documentary and empirical studies in the argumentation. We will focus on which kinds of assessments have been used, for which purposes and the role of this in the perspective of society. More contemporary trends will be discussed, specifically the use of standardised testing. The Nordic countries differ at some points concerning the use of assessments of this character. Assessments point to and create differences between pupils and play a key role in processes of socialisation, marginalisation and in- and exclusion in society, as discussed by theorists such as Bourdieu and Bernstein. If the comprehensive school is based on the general idea of a school for all, how can different ways of practising assessment support or work against this idea? What conclusions can be drawn from the experiences in the Nordic countries?

Reconstituting the ‘ADHD-girl’: Accomplishing exclusion and solidifying a biomedical identity in an ADHD class

In this study, we explore what happens to young people labelled as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after they have been excluded from mainstream class and placed in a special class. More specifically, we focus on how a specific disability identity is locally accomplished and ascribed to a girl placed in an ADHD class containing only boys. Data are drawn from the communication books that regularly passed between the parents and teachers, and from ethnographic work in a special class for children aged 7–12 years diagnosed with ADHD, during a period of one school year. We draw on ethnomethodology, especially membership categorisation analysis, when investigating unfolding trajectories of shifting identifications during a school year. The detailed analysis reveals that the girl is accomplished as capable of managing her life in school at the beginning of the year, but by the end is constructed as disabled and identified as a typical ADHD girl in very subtle ways in the teachers communication with the parents. Furthermore, our analysis highlights how the process of exclusion and social identification of the girl as a typical ADHD girl is mutually constructed and achieved across classroom activities in everyday schooling contexts.

Special education and globalisation: Continuities and contrasts across the developed and developing world

Over the past 30 years, inclusive education has become the dominant discourse in the field of special educational needs (SEN) across the developed and developing world, reflected in the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Educational Needs (UNESCO, 1994), the Dakar Framework for Action: Education for All (UNESCO, 2000) and the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention includes a commitment to promote inclusive practices for disabled adults and children across all fields of social policy, including education, training and employment. The focus on inclusion has tended to deflect attention away from changes within the special sector (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education [EADSNE], 2010; OECD, 2007) and the use of official and unofficial forms of school exclusion. The papers in this Special Issue of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education have been written by members of an international research network funded by the Leverhulme Foundation entitled Special Education and Policy Change: A Study of Six Jurisdictions (IN-089) which conducted a range of research and knowledge exchange activities from 2012 to 2014. Network partners analysed (i) the nature and extent of variation across developed countries in the use of special schools and classes; (ii) the permeability of the boundary between mainstream and special settings and (iii) the discourses underpinning the use of special and inclusive settings in different contexts. The network developed an analysis and critique of official statistics on the use of mainstream and special settings and their underpinning discourses reflected in policy and legislation. Of particular interest was the discursive use of official statistics within a globalised context. Special educational needs policy, with its emphasis on inclusive education, may be seen as a manifestation of travelling policy, with an overall homogenising tendency. At the same time, SEN policy is embedded within particular national and local contexts histories and cultures, thus adopting distinctive vernacular forms (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010).

Conceptions of social justice in Scottish and Swedish education systems

This Special Issue examines Swedish and Scottish education through the lens of social justice and citizenship. Each paper has a slightly different take on these central concepts, but all recognise that social justice has multiple dimensions relating to (re)distribution, recognition and participation. The multi-dimensional nature of citizenship is also recognised, encompassing civil, political and social rights. This introductory chapter highlights the central concerns of the papers, which compare and contrast the educational systems of Sweden and Scotland. While the achievements of comprehensive and inclusive education are recognised, future challenges are also noted, in particular, the extent to which education may be used as a means of achieving social justice and supporting citizenship rights at a time when economic inequalities are increasing.

The practices of dealing with children in need of special support: a Nordic perspective

The purpose of this special issue is to introduce questions that concern how children in need of special support are dealt with in the Nordic countries. Our interests at one level relate to how the difficulties of children who cannot live up to expectations in terms of adaptation to schooling are understood and categorized. In particular, some consequences of the use of diagnoses suggested by modern neuropsychiatry in these countries will be presented. At another level, our interests concern the daily lives of children with such diagnoses and the provisions made for facilitating their participation in school activities.

Exploring Practices and The Construction of Identities in School

Learning is to a large extent an ongoing social process as both students and their teachers learn by being part of shared social practices through social interactions that facilitate learning gains. Learning gains are facilitated by different factors. Sociocultural research shows that the organization of schooling promotes or restricts learning, and is a crucial factor to understand how children from a diversity of backgrounds profit from instruction. This is a first urgent issue to be considered by teachers and teacher education in our socio and culturally diverse society.