Jan W. Valle

The Discursive Practice of Learning Disability Implications for Instruction and Parent—School Relations

This article serves as an invitation to rethink and to broaden the scope of learning disabilities (LD) research and practice. We begin with 3 assumptions: Education in a representative democracy is inevitably a political enterprise; social justice is everyones responsibility, but educators have a special role to play; and segregated schooling is neither equal nor equitable. After an analysis of the primary extant discourses, we argue for a more comprehensive and more openly political vision of the LD field, which we think is supported by Disability Studies in Education. Finally, we draw 3 conclusions relevant to our collective work as researchers and educators. First, learning disabilities are not objective fact; they are historically and culturally determined. Second, disability is both a personal and a societal attribute. Finally, learning disabilities are not and have never been immutable. We contend that we are ethically bound to transform educational practices to both welcome and accommodate everybodys children.

Disability Studies in Education The Need for a Plurality of Perspectives on Disability

This article asserts that the field of special education, historically founded on conceptions of disability originating within scientific, psychological, and medical frameworks, will benefit from acknowledging broader understandings of disability. Although well intended, traditional understandings of disability in special education have inadvertently inhibited the development of theory, limited research methods, narrowed pedagogical practice, and determined largely segregated policies for educating students with disabilities. Since the passage of P.L. 94-142, along with the growth of the Disability Rights Movements, meanings of disability have expanded and evolved, no longer constrained to the deficit-based medical model. For many individuals, disability is primarily best understood within social, cultural, and historical contexts. As career-long educators, the authors describe the emergence of Disability Studies in Education, illustrating ways it offers them the means to engage with longstanding tensions, limitations, and promises within their chosen field of special education—helping to reframe, accurately ground, and define their own research and practice. The authors call upon the field of special education to acknowledge and accept a greater plurality of perspectives about the nature of disability, recognizing the profound implications this raises for research, and viewing it as a welcome opportunity for ongoing dialogue.

Teachers with LD Ongoing Negotiations with Discourses of Disability

The purpose of this study is to examine how 4 teachers with learning disabilities (LD) negotiate multiple, complex, and sometimes contradictory discourses of disabilities in constructing their own understandings of LD. We chose to study teachers with LD because of their unique access to at least 3 different sources of knowledge about LD: (a) professional discourses on disability, (b) mainstream cultural messages about LD, and (c) insights gained from their own life experience. We drew on aspects of critical discourse analysis and narrative inquiry for this investigation. Our findings indicate that participants draw on these discourses and on their teaching experience in various and complex ways to construct meaning about LD. In some instances, participants use the dominant discourses; at other times, they work to subvert these meanings. Yet, paradoxically, whether speaking with or against these meanings, their voices are inescapably engaging with authoritative discourses and cultural scripts surrounding disability.

Down the Rabbit Hole: A Commentary about Research on Parents and Special Education.

This article examines what we know about the experience of parents in the special education system—in particular, parents of children with learning disabilities since the passage of PL-94-142. Toward this end, I offer a review of special education literature about parent and professional collaboration, a rationale for relying upon a plurality of methodological frameworks in conducting research with parents of children with LD, and a challenge to the profession to raise and respond to ethical questions about our naturalized practices in alliance with parents.

The Disability Closet: Teachers with Learning Disabilities Evaluate the Risks and Benefits of “Coming Out”

This study investigates the factors that influence whether teachers with learning disabilities (LD) choose to disclose their disability status within public school settings. Four special education teachers who self-identify as having LD identify and clarify the complex, ongoing issues that “disability disclosure” raises in educational environments. Through narrative, these teachers describe their self-negotiated decisions about why, how, when, and to whom to disclose. Using the metaphor of “the closet,” we make connections between the experiences of people labeled as having learning disabilities and the experiences of people who are gay—exploring their similar positioning in the mainstream as individuals who evaluate the risks and benefits of “coming out.” Drawing upon the emic perspective of teachers with LD, implications for public schools and teacher education programs are discussed.

Across the Conference Table: Private and Public Mothering of Children With Learning Disabilities

In this article, a narrative inquiry approach is used to investigate how mothers report their experiences of parenting children with learning disability (LD) within the culture of American motherhood and to explore what impact such experiences of motherhood might have upon their relationships with school professionals. Analysis of the mothers’ narratives yields two overarching themes: The Private Mother (inner thoughts and feelings about her own mothering) and The Public Mother (outward responses to others’ comments and behaviors about her mothering). Two subcategories are discussed within each overarching theme: Internalizing and Resisting Social Messages and Inside the Family (The Private Mother), and Judgment in Public Spaces and Mother as Outcast (The Public Mother). The author addresses implications of these findings and offers recommendations for collaborating with mothers of children identified as LD.