The Cultural Work of Learning Disabilities

• Published in: Educational researcher Vol. 35; no. 6; pp. 12 - 17
• Main Authors: McDermott, Ray, Goldman, Shelley, Varenne, Hervé
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA American Educational Research Association 01.08.2006; Sage Publications
• Subjects: American literature; Attention Deficit Disorders; Behavior; Behavioral Science Research; Behavioral Sciences; Children; Children & youth; Childrens novels; Classroom Research; Classrooms; Cognitive Ability; Competition; Cultural groups; Culture; Desks; Disabilities; Educational research; Emotional Disturbances; English language; English Learners; Ethnicity; Ethnography; Labeling (of Persons); Language culture relationship; Learning Disabilities; Learning Problems; Linguistics; Mathematics education; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Group Children; Minority Groups; Morrison, Toni (1931-2019); Noncategorical Education; People with disabilities; Racial Identification; Representation of Minority Students in Special Education: Complicating Traditional Explanations; Resistance (Psychology); Rumors; School Culture; School Effectiveness; Sociolinguistics; Special Education; Teachers; United States; United States; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 0013-189X; 1935-102X
• DOI: 10.3102/0013189X035006012

Culturally and educationally, the United States specializes in the production of kinds of persons described first by ethnic, racial, and linguistic lines and second by supposed mental abilities. Overlaps between the two systems of classification are frequent, systematically haphazard, and often deleterious. An examination of classrooms around the country shows shifting currents of concern and tension that invite the attribution of labels for mental and/or minority-group status. This article introduces a language for a cultural analysis-a language of people interpreting the interpretations of others-and pursues an example from a classroom where both the good sense and the dangers of categories for learning-disabled and minority-group status are on display.