It is dedicated to the learners who shared their stories with me, and the many others who remain voiceless. It is in the mainstream that the "identity as LD" is constructed as a result of the comparison with the performance of peers who do not have LD.
Introduction
That there are multiple ways of knowing (Eisner, 1990, Guba, 1990, Phillips, 1990) is more widely accepted in the social sciences and humanities than in the medical and health sciences, the fields where most research on LD is generated. Dominant paradigms result in research that sheds light only on very specific aspects of the problem.
Rationale
The personal rationale
Malapropisms are common in children with learning difficulties due to their poor auditory perceptual skills (Vallance & Wintre, 1997). This is illustrated in the title of this report, which comes from a wealth of malapropisms expressed by a child with a learning disability.
The theoretical rationale
In other worlds, I believe that by attempting to explore the experiences of a child with LD, we can gain an understanding of the entire phenomenon, its impact on the student's daily functioning, and ultimately on their identity. It may then be possible to use this understanding of the child's experience of LD to guide our intervention.
The methodological rationale
The central argument of this study is that we need to examine the perspective of the child with learning disabilities within a different framework to develop different 'understandings' of learning disabilities (Brechin, 1999). Identifying the child's strengths would result in planning appropriate management strategies to enable the experience of success rather than failure.
Critical questions
I believe that the answers to the following questions will help to provide just that—an alternative understanding of LD, one that reflects a broader view and therefore one that sheds light on LD from the perspective or perspective of internal.
Scope of the study
Furthermore, due to the nature of the study and the informants' need to articulate their experiences (Bargdill, 2000), younger children were not included. Admission criteria to the remedial site established a diagnosis of LD6 as the primary cause of scholastic failure; the mainstream site had a remedial unit which provided support to students who had a positive diagnosis of LD and who had either had a period of placement in a remedial school or required ongoing support in the mainstream school.
Theoretical and analytical framework
This is to understand holistically, in a way that allows for the inclusion of variables that add to the reality of the participants, rather than "isolate" these variables as in reductionist approaches (Bolton, 2001:363). From my critique of the reductive nature of current learning disability research, it should be clear why phenomenology appeals to me.
Methodology
Current research aimed at providing the learner's perspective is critiqued in the next chapter. Through the use of the life story method, [child with learning disabilities] is seen as much more than [disabled].
Definition of terms
This refers to how I analyze the ways in which children with LD narrate their lives. According to Laing (1967), however, I can never know another's experience; I can observe his/her behavior and it becomes my experience in the same way that my behavior becomes his/her experience.
Outline of chapters
I have also introduced the key arguments for an alternative methodological approach, challenging the hegemony of the logico-empiricism that underpins research in the LD field. I then review the dominant methods in the existing research as a way to motivate or provide a rationale for an alternative method.
Limitations
In the previous chapter, I described the focus and rationale of my research and provided a brief overview of the methodological approach I adopted. In the last part of this chapter, I introduce the concept of identity and look at different ways of constructing identity.
Dominant research paradigms: Review of methodologies used
Defining LD
The use of words such as “imperfect capacity,” “brain injury,” and “brain dysfunction” in the EHA definition indicates the influence of the deficit or pathology model. Kavale and Forness (1996) provide an overview and critique of research into the social skills of people with intellectual disabilities.
Managing LD
- Inclusive education
Some recent research into different management strategies for children with LD reflects a different understanding of the phenomenon. In chapter five I present evidence to suggest that in fact inclusive education is not necessarily in the best interests of the learner. This raises questions about whether inclusive education is really in the best interests of students with special educational needs, questions to which I will return in Chapter Five.
Experiencing LD
To date, research that purports to describe the experiences of children with specific learning difficulties does not give much space to the child's voice – views and feelings are often assumed by the researcher and/or educators involved in the research. She privileges the mother's view, for example, when a child expresses that she did not feel as if she had a problem in a certain area and the mother disagrees, Riddick comments on the child's "defensiveness" rather than examining whether the child's perceptions were more reliable than the mother's. Another criticism of this research is that the questions in the questionnaire leave little room to explore the things the child was comfortable with or the areas in which the child achieved.
An LD identity?
Since the child with LD spends most of the day in a group where he/she performs differently, is judged differently, one can expect him/her to reflect that "difference" or "deficit" in their identity. It is social comparison, in other words that which differentiates or differentiates a child from the majority, which particularly affects the self-concept of the child with LD, as he/she is regularly compared by others as well as him/herself to achievers in the classroom context . In the case of the child with LD, if the immediate experience is of success, praise and positive feedback, this can have an impact on the way he looks at his LD.
Conclusion
I think we can see that if we explore the child's experiences of LD and how these experiences affect the construction of his/her identity. In the following chapter, I present and justify the method used in an attempt to shed light on these experiences. By making choices about the ontology and epistemology of LD, I present a specific way of understanding the phenomenon of LD.
Rationale for a qualitative design, life history methodology
It is my hope that the stories generated by this research teach us about LD and that they actually reveal aspects of this particular "condition" that are not revealed by other methodological approaches.
Research process
Phase 1: Preparation phase
- Selection of sites
- Sampling
- Data collection process
- Data set 1: Primary voices
- Data set 2: Secondary voices
- Data set 3: Researcher’s voice
One of the informants was my own child, a 14-year-old female (at the start of the study) who has a history of LD. The informants were made aware that all recorded information can be used as data for the study. Indeed, there was a mutual shaping of the data (Meier, 1998); I was therefore as guilty as my informants in this process.
Phase three: Data analysis
- Data analysis process
- Data analysis tactics
Although this can partly be explained by the fact that one of the female informants was my own daughter, and therefore the relationship between. As three of the informants became tearful during the interviews, I used a symbol in the transcript to indicate tears when this occurred. As I wrote the data, I was therefore constantly aware of the danger of my voice dominating (Mehra, 2002).
Drawing conclusions: Data interpretation
During the writing of the report and the representation of the data, in an attempt to determine the veracity or truth of my analysis and conclusions from the data, I regularly established an iterative process with two of the informants with whom I had regular contact : my own daughter is one. The nature of the research is such that I cannot make any assumptions about the generalizability and validity of the stories. I am aware that in the initial draft of the interviews, and in the background information I provided to the informants about the research, I already offered a possible framework for their stories, and perhaps even limited what they wanted to tell.
Data representation
However, this terminology is not used in the dominant discourse on qualitative research, especially narrative research. Noy (2003) suggests that narrative inquiry allows for going beyond the focus on piecemeal skills, a view also espoused by Jones (1993), and this is what I set out to do, as outlined in the introductory chapter. I have used extensive quotations both in the presentation of the stories in chapter four and in the analysis of them that follows in chapter five.
Ethical measures
All potential participants or informants were counseled about the nature and process of the research, and through role-play activities, “trial interviews” (not for data collection) were conducted to experience the process. I tried to address this before the research process by explaining that I would try to write a story about their school experiences based on what we discussed in the interviews. Confidentiality was ensured and neither schools nor individuals were identified in any way in the research report.
Conclusion
Mainstream education: Experiencing exclusion in inclusion
- Failure
- Humiliation
- Teasing
Failure is described in the Encarta Dictionary as "lack of success, the fact of being unable to do or become what is desired, expected, or attempted." The word "disappointment" is offered as a synonym in the thesaurus, so that the experience of failure can be understood as experiencing disappointment (Levine, 2002, Riddick, 1996). Although failure is a daily experience for most of my informants, it is not one they dwell on in the interviews. I return to this point in the following chapter when I propose a reformulation of the intervention objectives to take this into account.
Specialized education: Experiencing inclusion in exclusion
I think it was better for me to go there - because I had a lot of problems - now I'm in [mainstream high school] and RRs actually helped me a lot. Strong friendships were formed in the remedial school or unit, friendships that lasted into young adulthood in at least 2 cases. For my informants, it was the beginning of a realization that in that environment they are no longer "Other", but the same as others, it was the beginning of acceptance and building self-esteem.
Experiencing support
- Teachers and teaching
- Peers and parents
- Other forms of support
In the discussion that follows, I highlight the informants' experiences with teachers - the good, the bad and the ugly. It is the latter form of teaching that raises interesting questions about how well children with LD are actually served in the current education system. She acknowledges the additional support received then for better teacher involvement in the learners' lives: they knew who was in remediation while in high school: they don't really notice.
On disclosure
Efficacy
The blame game: externalizing the problem
Interpreting their condition
How they cope: compensatory techniques
Summary of key findings
New directions for intervention: Implications for pedagogy
Future research
Conclusion
