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out of sight, out of mind/out of mind, out of site:
Schooling and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Linda J. Graham
Queensland University of Technology
Paper for the Philosophy in Education Society of Australasia (PESA) Annual Conference, 23rd-26th November 2006, University of Sydney, Australia
Corresponding author:
Linda J. Graham
Centre for Learning Innovation
Faculty of Education
Queensland University of Technology
Victoria Park Road
Kelvin Grove QLD 4059
AUSTRALIA
Email: l2.graham@qut.edu.au
Abstract
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a diagnostic term now indelibly scored on the public psyche. It is one of the most widely researched topics in the world today. In some quarters, a diagnosis of ADHD is regarded with derision. In others, it can be a god-send. It appears the jury is still out with regards to the truth of ADHD. As such, the rapid increase in diagnosis over the past fifteen years, coupled with an exponential rise in the prescription of restricted class psychopharmaceuticals has stirred virulent debate. Provoking the most interest, it seems, are questions regarding causality. Typically, these revolve around possible antecedents for disorderly behaviour bad food, bad tv and bad parents. Very seldom is the institution of schooling ever in the line of sight. This paper draws on doctoral research that attempts to investigate this gap by questioning what might be happening in schools how this may be contributing to the definition, recognition and classification of particular children as a particular kind of disorderly.
Introduction
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, increasing numbers of school-aged children are being described as behaviourally disordered and diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADDIN EN.CITE ABS2000381038ABS2000Australian Social TrendsCanberraAustralian Bureau of Statistics200410th April 2004Australian Social TrendsABS, disability, ADHD, statisticshttp://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/professional_exchange/docs/abs/4102/41020-2000.pdf(ABS, 2000). Correspondingly, there has been a sustained increase in prescriptions for stimulants administered to children diagnosed with what is now commonly known as ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Prosser199911011Prosser, B.,Reid, R.,Shute, R.,Atkinson, I.,2002Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Special education policy and practice in AustraliaAustralian Journal of Education46165-782002Special education and psychologyADHD and special ed policy and practice in ausIntervention, psychological approaches, parental pushDavis200166766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1Mackey2001421042Mackey, P.,Kopras, A.,2001Medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): an Analysis by Federal ElectorateCanberraFederal Parliament3 April 2001Inquiry analysisMedication for ADHDNo. 11. 2000-01ADHd, medication, parliamentary inquiry(Davis et al., 2001; Mackey & Kopras, 2001; Prosser et al., 2002). Statistics in the Commonwealth Government publication, Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998, not only confirm this trend but isolate unparalleled growth in the diagnosis of ADHD amongst boys 5 to 15 years of age ADDIN EN.CITE Davis200166766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1(Davis et al., 2001).
The report indicates that due to the rise in ADHD diagnoses, the number of young boys diagnosed with either a mental or behavioural condition increased almost tenfold in the period between 1988 and 1998; from 2,200 boys to 20,800 respectively ADDIN EN.CITE Davis200166, p.14766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1(Davis et al., 2001, p.14). It also draws attention to one spectacular increase in ADHD diagnosis over a period of some five years to illustrate the scale of the rise, stating that [b]etween the 1993 and 1998 surveys, the rate of ADHD increased markedly, particularly among boys aged 5 to 14. The number with ADHD in 1998 (10,700) was greater than the total recorded with a mental disorder in 1993 ADDIN EN.CITE Davis200166emphasis added, , p.15766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1(emphasis added, Davis et al., 2001, p.15). Evidently girls have not been immune, as the number of girls diagnosed with mental and behavioural conditions doubled in the ten years between 1988 and 1998 ADDIN EN.CITE Davis200166766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1(Davis et al., 2001).
Among existing explanations are assertions that parents ADDIN EN.CITE Shanahan200448548Shanahan, Angela2004Jumping on the victim bandwagonThe Sunday TelegraphSydney4Sunday30th May 2004Commentary, columnshanahan, adhd, critical of parentsSmelter199644044Smelter, Richard W.Rasch, Bradley W.Fleming, JanNazos, PatBaranowski, Sharon1996Is Attention Deficit Disorder Becoming A Desired Diagnosis?Phi Delta Kappan776429-4321996ADHD, critiqueIs ADD becoming a desired diagnosis?parents source of growth of ADHD(Smelter et al., 1996; Shanahan, 2004) and/or lobby groups ADDIN EN.CITE Conrad1975606Conrad, Peter1975The Discovery of Hyperkinesis: Notes on the Medicalization of DevianceSocial Problems23112-211975Social construction of ADHDHyperkinesisADHD, social constructionLloyd19991550155Lloyd, Gwynned1999Including ADHD?Disability and Society144pp. 505-517(Conrad, 1975; Lloyd, 1999) are behind the exponential growth in diagnoses of psychiatric behaviour disorders and this argument is also reflected in the professional literature ADDIN EN.CITE Atkinson1999808Atkinson, I.Shute, R.1999Managing ADHD: Issues in developing multidisciplinary guidelinesAustralian Journal of Guidance & Counselling92119-1271999PsychologyManaging ADHDADHD, rejection of medical diagnostic labels, expert statusReid199312012Reid, R.,Maag, J.W.,Vasa, S.F.,1993Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a Disability Category: A CritiqueExceptional Children603198-214Dec 1993Special education and psychology arguing against ADHD as disabilityCritique of ADHD as disabilitycriticisms of the medical model and validity of ADHD(Reid et al., 1993; Atkinson & Shute, 1999). However, this is too simplistic an explanation as to why increasingly large numbers of school-aged children, particularly those in early primary, are being diagnosed as psychiatrically and behaviourally disordered. Especially when research indicates that teachers are often the first to suggest a diagnosis of ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Sax20033580358Sax, LeonardKautz, Kathleen J2003Who First Suggests the Diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?Annals of Family Medicine13171-174(Sax & Kautz, 2003) or recommend that parents take their child to a professional to investigate their hyperactive, distractible or impulsive behaviour ADDIN EN.CITE Neophytou20043752375Neophytou, Koula2004ADHD, a social construct?MelbourneAustralian Catholic University159Master of Social Science (by research)(Neophytou, 2004).
Out of sight, out of mind
It is interesting to note that Davis et al. (2001) point to a correlation between a peak in the Disability and Severe Restrictions Rate (measuring diagnosis of mental and behaviour disorder) and the start of compulsory school attendance. Due to the impact of ADHD diagnoses, the rate peaks at five years of age and is maintained steadily from there until dropping again post-compulsory schooling age ADDIN EN.CITE Davis200166, p. 6766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1(Davis et al., 2001, p. 6). Whilst the report considers several possible impact factors, i.e. that there is no reliable reporting agency tracking children once they leave school ADDIN EN.CITE Davis200166, p.6766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/1(Davis et al., 2001, p.6); the possibility that schooling itself may be a contributing factor receives scant, if any consideration.
However, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterised in the DSM-IV-TR ADDIN EN.CITE APA19943781378APA1994Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersWashington, DCAmerican Psychiatric Association4th(APA, 1994) by the presence of behaviours apparently incongruent with those most desired for success in the classroom environment ADDIN EN.CITE Stormont-Spurgin1997909Stormont-Spurgin, Melissa1997I lost my homework: Strategies for Improving Organization in Students with ADHDIntervention in School and Clinic325270-274May 1997Supports ADHD as a medical disorder, special ed focusI lost my homeworkADHD, special education interventions(Stormont-Spurgin, 1997). For example, the DSM-IV diagnostic process requires that the child meet six or more criteria in either (1) Inattention or (2) Hyperactive-Impulsive categories ADDIN EN.CITE APA19943781378APA1994Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersWashington, DCAmerican Psychiatric Association4th(APA, 1994). A cursory glance at the list is enough to notice that most of the behaviours listed are contingent upon the demands of schooling. Resisting the urge to blurt out answers in class, remaining in ones seat and being still and quiet are cultural expectations brought about by the advent of mass schooling.
It appears that the increasingly unnatural demands of contemporary schooling have resulted in the (re)articulation of normal childhood exuberance, curiosity and energy as unnatural ADDIN EN.CITE Panksepp19981530153Panksepp, Jaak1998Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders, Psychostimulants, and Intolerance of Childhood Playfulness: A Tragedy in the Making?Current Directions in Psychological Science7391-98(Panksepp, 1998). Problematically the contribution of changes in schooling demands - such as lowering of school entry ages, increased emphasis on academic learning and seat work, pressure for children to learn to read earlier and better, crowding of the curriculum, the shortening of childrens recess and lunch times barely rate a mention in the myriad of contributing and causal factors being considered in the literature around ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20074120412Graham, Linda J.2007From ABCs to ADHD: the influence of schooling upon the construction of behaviour disorder and the production of disorderly objectsInternational Journal of Inclusive Education11in press(Graham, 2007b).
Some proponents maintain that children diagnosed with ADHD benefit from medication in that they become better disposed to learning ADDIN EN.CITE Green199729129Green, ChristopherChee, Kit1997Understanding ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderSydneyDoubledayUnderstanding ADHDADHD, management, medical bookSelikowitz19954181418Selikowitz, Mark1995All about ADD: Understanding Attention Deficit DisorderMelbourneOxford University Press, Australia(Selikowitz, 1995; Green & Chee, 1997). This is not supported by extensive research that has demonstrated that use of stimulant medication does not result in learning benefits for the medicated child ADDIN EN.CITE Hechtman20043940394Hechtman, LilyAbikoff, HowardKlein, Rachel G.Weiss, GarbielleRespitz, CharaKouri, JoanBlum, CarolGreenfield, BrianEtcovitch, JoyFleiss, KarenPollack, Simcha2004Academic Achievement and Emotional Status of Children with ADHD Treated with Long-Term Methylphenidate and Multimodal Psychosocial TreatmentJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry437812-819Swanson19933820382Swanson, James M.McBurnett, KeithWigal, TimPfiffner, Linda J.Lerner, Marc A.Williams, LillieChristian, Diane L.Tamm, LeanneWillcutt, ErikCrowley, KentClevenger, WalterKhouzam, NaderWoo, ChristinaCrinella, Francis M.Fisher, Todd D.1993Effect of Stimulant Medication on Children with Attention Deficit Disorder: A "Review of Reviews"Exceptional Children602154-162(Swanson et al., 1993; Hechtman et al., 2004) but in more docile behaviour appropriate to the orderly running of the classroom ADDIN EN.CITE Slee19941350135Slee, Roger1994Finding a Student Voice in School Reform: student disaffection, pathologies of disruption and educational controlInternational Studies in Sociology of Education42147-172Slee199550150Slee, Roger1995Changing Theories and Practices of DisciplineLondonThe Falmer Presscontrol in education(Slee, 1994; 1995). Interestingly, Purdie et al. (2002) found in their review of the interventions advocated for use when dealing with behaviours said to indicate Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, that the effects on educational outcomes were greater for educational interventions than for any other types of intervention - including medical, psychosocial and parental training interventions. Similarly, other researchers observe the danger in medicalising the educational problem of disruptive behaviour in schools because this may cause educators to see such behaviour as strictly biological and outside their expertise ADDIN EN.CITE Prosser199911011Prosser, B.,Reid, R.,Shute, R.,Atkinson, I.,2002Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Special education policy and practice in AustraliaAustralian Journal of Education46165-782002Special education and psychologyADHD and special ed policy and practice in ausIntervention, psychological approaches, parental push(Prosser et al., 2002) or indeed as a dispositional problem ADDIN EN.CITE Thomas200016016Thomas, GaryGlenny, Georgina2000Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: bogus needs in a false categoryDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education213283-2982000EBD(Thomas & Glenny, 2000) not related to their choice of pedagogy or ability to engage children in learning.
Whilst there is an abundance of literature that looks to the educational implications of ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Bradshaw199865065Bradshaw, K.1998The Integration of Children with Behaviour Disorders: A Longitudinal StudyAustralasian Journal of Special Education212115-123Integration of Children with Behaviour DisordersHocutt19933680368Hocutt, Anne M.McKinney, James D.Montague, Marjorie1993Issues in the Education of Students with Attention Deficit Disorder: Introduction to the Special IssueExceptional Children602103-106McBurnett19933690369McBurnett, KeithLahey, Benjamin B.Pfiffner, Linda J.1993Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorders in DSM-IV: Scientific Basis and Implications for EducationExceptional Children602108-117Zentall19933560356Zentall, Sydney S.1993Research on the Educational Implications of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderExceptional Children602143-153(Hocutt et al., 1993; McBurnett et al., 1993; Zentall, 1993; Bradshaw, 1998), proffering behaviour management strategies for the classroom ADDIN EN.CITE Burcham19933700370Burcham, BarbaraCarlson, LaurenceMilich, Richard1993Promising School-Based Practices for Students with Attention Deficit DisorderExceptional Children602174-180Hodges1990751675Hodges, Bev1990TIPS: Case study in classroom managementEducationQueenslandAcross the Curriculum: Resources Bulletin N45 P8BrisbaneEducation Queensland 2003200418th Julyhttp://education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/00537.htmStormont-Spurgin1997909Stormont-Spurgin, Melissa1997I lost my homework: Strategies for Improving Organization in Students with ADHDIntervention in School and Clinic325270-274May 1997Supports ADHD as a medical disorder, special ed focusI lost my homeworkADHD, special education interventions(Hodges, 1990; Burcham et al., 1993; Stormont-Spurgin, 1997), and targeted interventions ADDIN EN.CITE Fiore19933720372Fiore, Thomas S.Becker, Elizabeth A.Nero, Rebecca C.1993Educational Interventions for Students with Attention Deficit DisorderExceptional Children602163-173Reiber20043710371Reiber, ChristopherMcLaughlin, T.F.2004Classroom Interventions: Methods to improve academic performance and classroom behaviour for students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity DisorderInternational Journal of Special Education1911-13(Fiore et al., 1993; Reiber & McLaughlin, 2004); conspicuously absent from the field of investigation is the complicity of the educational institution itself. This is particularly so in relation to how psychopathologising discourses and classification practices might influence the perception of certain behaviours as disorderly, leading to the subsequent recognition of particular children as a particular kind of disorderly ADDIN EN.CITE Grahamin press1660166Graham, Linda2006Caught in the Net: A Foucaultian interrogation of the incidental effects of limited notions of "inclusion"International Journal of Inclusive Education1013-24(Graham, 2006a).
Marshalling Foucault
Drawing on the work of philosopher/historian Michel Foucault ADDIN EN.CITE O'Farrell19894531453O'Farrell, Clare1989Foucault: Historian or Philosopher?LondonMacmillan(O'Farrell, 1989), I have sought to interrogate this absence by considering what influence the things said and done in the name of schooling might be having upon the rate of diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADDIN EN.CITE Mackey2001421042Mackey, P.,Kopras, A.,2001Medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): an Analysis by Federal ElectorateCanberraFederal Parliament3 April 2001Inquiry analysisMedication for ADHDNo. 11. 2000-01ADHd, medication, parliamentary inquiryDavis200166766Davis, ElizabethBeer, JazGligora, CassandraThorn, Alison2001Accounting for Change in Disability and Severe Restriction, 1981-1998Working Papers in Social and Labour Statistics (No.2001/1)Belconnen, ACTAustralian Bureau of Statistics2001/120003810382000Australian Social TrendsABSCanberraAustralian Bureau of Statistics200410th April 2004Australian Social TrendsABS, disability, ADHD, statisticshttp://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/professional_exchange/docs/abs/4102/41020-2000.pdf(2000a; Davis et al., 2001; Mackey & Kopras, 2001). My work does not contribute to arguments that debate the truth of ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Thomas200016016Thomas, GaryGlenny, Georgina2000Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: bogus needs in a false categoryDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education213283-2982000EBD(Thomas & Glenny, 2000), or claim that behaviour disorderedness is purely a social construct ADDIN EN.CITE Conrad1975606Conrad, Peter1975The Discovery of Hyperkinesis: Notes on the Medicalization of DevianceSocial Problems23112-211975Social construction of ADHDHyperkinesisADHD, social construction(Conrad, 1975). Instead, I takes the Foucauldian position that it is not necessary to engage in a battle on behalf of the truth by debating the philosophical presuppositions that may lie within that truth nor the epistemological foundations that may legitimate it ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault197246, p. 205146Foucault, M.1972The Archaeology of KnowledgeNew YorkPantheon Books(A.M. Sheridan Smith, trans.)(Foucault, 1972, p. 205).
Indeed, it appears that literature engaging with the myth or reality of ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Laurence1998707Laurence, JenniferMcCallum, David1998The Myth-or-Reality of Attention-Deficit-Disorder: A Genealogical ApproachDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education192183-2001998Myth-or-reality of ADHDADHD, social construction, discursive practices, EEG(Laurence & McCallum, 1998) has come to be accompanied by that which assiduously co-opts such arguments ADDIN EN.CITE Smelter199644044Smelter, Richard W.Rasch, Bradley W.Fleming, JanNazos, PatBaranowski, Sharon1996Is Attention Deficit Disorder Becoming A Desired Diagnosis?Phi Delta Kappan776429-4321996ADHD, critiqueIs ADD becoming a desired diagnosis?parents source of growth of ADHDSava20003730373Sava, Florin A.2000Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder an exonerating construct? Strategies for school inclusionEuropean Journal of Special Needs Education152149-157(Smelter et al., 1996; Sava, 2000), illustrating the salience of Foucaults point that to become mired in a truth debate is to risk being colonised by it. Correspondingly with respect to education, Tait ADDIN EN.CITE Tait200110, p. 100010Tait, Gordon2001Pathologising Difference, Governing PersonalityAsia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education29193-1022001Critique of ADHD as a social constructionPathologising Difference1359-866XADHD, discursive practices, expansion of categories of disorder(2001, p. 100) points out that, [r]efusing to accept the existence of ADHD is, ultimately, of little use, for decisions about the veracity of the construct will be made in locations other than the school. However, it is often within the locality of the school that the disorderly object supposedly embodying ADHD diagnostic criteria comes to be defined ADDIN EN.CITE Glass200051051Glass, Cynthia S.Wegar, Katarina2000Teacher Perceptions of the Incidence and Management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderEducation1212412-420Winter 2000Empirical study into teacher perceptions of ADHDTeacher perceptions of ADHDsocial construction of ADHD, teacher perceptions, prevalence rateGraham20074290429Graham, Linda2007Speaking of 'disorderly' objects: a poetics of pedagogical discourseDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education281Sax20033580358Sax, LeonardKautz, Kathleen J2003Who First Suggests the Diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?Annals of Family Medicine13171-174(Glass & Wegar, 2000; Sax & Kautz, 2003; Graham, 2007a). This strongly implicates schooling in the psychopathologisation of children for, as Tait (2001, p. 100) declares:
After all, it is not just medicine and psychology which produced ADHD; it was also the individuating/differentiating logic of the contemporary school itself [and] questions are still to be asked over entities like ADHD because of the social and administrative function they appear to serve within the classroom.
Taking up the conversation from Tait (2001), I seek to question what role schooling plays in the rising rate of ADHD diagnosis. To do so however, one must attempt to disentangle the complex web of related practices and apparatuses ADDIN EN.CITE Walkerdine198431, p. 162731Walkerdine, Valerie1984Developmental psychology and the child-centred pedagogy: the insertion of Piaget into early educationHenriques, J., Holloway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., & Walkerdine, V.Changing the Subject: Psychology, social regulation and subjectivityLondonMethuen & Co.153-202Changing the Subjecttheory, foucaultian(Walkerdine, 1984, p. 162).
Questioning ADHD as a Discursive Formation
Foucault ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault197246, p. 205146Foucault, M.1972The Archaeology of KnowledgeNew YorkPantheon Books(A.M. Sheridan Smith, trans.)(1972, p. 205) maintains that to tackle the ideological function of a science in order to reveal and modify it, one should question it as a discursive formation, which involves mapping the system by which particular objects are formed and the types of enunciations implicated. I take this to mean that instead of engaging in a battle of truth and fiction with the human sciences as to the existence of ADHD ADDIN EN.CITE Laurence1998707Laurence, JenniferMcCallum, David1998The Myth-or-Reality of Attention-Deficit-Disorder: A Genealogical ApproachDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education192183-2001998Myth-or-reality of ADHDADHD, social construction, discursive practices, EEGTait200110010Tait, Gordon2001Pathologising Difference, Governing PersonalityAsia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education29193-1022001Critique of ADHD as a social constructionPathologising Difference1359-866XADHD, discursive practices, expansion of categories of disorder(Laurence & McCallum, 1998; Tait, 2001), the objective is to consider how its objects might become formed; that is, how is this particular difference articulated and brought to attention and what might be the effects in the real ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault198071, p. 237771Foucault, M.1980Questions of MethodFaubion, James D.Michel Foucault: PowerNew YorkThe New Press223-238Rabinow, PaulEssential Works of Foucault 1954-1984Questions of Method(Foucault, 1980b, p. 237). Given the curious silence with regards to the influence of teachers, schools and schooling upon the rate of ADHD diagnosis, my research concentrates on what might be happening in schools and how this may implicate schooling as a system of formation ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault197246, p. 205146Foucault, M.1972The Archaeology of KnowledgeNew YorkPantheon Books(A.M. Sheridan Smith, trans.)(Foucault, 1972, p. 205) of disorderly objects.
Mapping Systems of Formation
Using poststructural theory and a conceptual framework informed by the work of Foucault, I interrogated a selection of early years assessment practices and resourcing mechanisms as interlocking threads within a textual fabric bound together by institutional and deficit discourses. These practices feed into one another; their interrelation and cross-communication resulting in a dense web of institutional check-points through which the young school child must pass. These intersecting threads or lines of enunciation and visibility ADDIN EN.CITE Deleuze19921317131Deleuze, Gilles1992What is a dispositif*?Armstrong, T.J.Michel Foucault: PhilosopherNew YorkHarvester Wheatsheaf159-168(Deleuze, 1992) create disciplinary spaces which operate as sorting fields, or in Foucauldian terms, grids of specification ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault197246, p. 46146Foucault, M.1972The Archaeology of KnowledgeNew YorkPantheon Books(A.M. Sheridan Smith, trans.)(Foucault, 1972, p. 46). The resulting differentiation, categorisation and spatialisation of different children is assisted by dominant discourses which invoke a mythical norm ADDIN EN.CITE Ferguson19901717171Ferguson, Russell1990Introduction: Invisible CentreFerguson, RussellOut There: Marginalization and Contemporary CulturesNew York and CambridgeNew Museum of Contemporary Art and MIT Press9-14(Ferguson, 1990), defining and universalising tacit standards from which specific others can then be declared to deviate (Ferguson, 1990, p. 9).
Fashioning a Net of Inquiry
When engaging with Foucaults metaphor of a discursive/technological grid, Scheurich ADDIN EN.CITE Scheurich1997114, pp. 98, 1071114Scheurich, James J.1997Research Method in the PostmodernGoodson, Ivor F.Scheurich, James J.Qualitative Studies Series 3LondonFalmer Press(1997, pp. 98, 107) discusses the construction and recognition of a problematic group occurring within what he describes as a grid of social regularities. Importantly, Scheurich (1997, p. 107) describes this grid as both epistemological and ontological; [for] it constitutes both who the problem group is and how the group is seen or known as a problem. However, when Foucault ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault1980111, p. 987111Foucault, M.1980Two LecturesGordon, ColinPower/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-1977New YorkPantheon Books78-108(1980c, p. 98) argues that power must be analysed as something that circulates through a net-like organisation, this suggests a more flexible, encompassing structure than that implied by the metaphor of a grid. So instead, I imagine a tangled net constructed with many intersecting threads, which is woven tight enough to capture an object but allows permeability for the non-object to pass through.
Following Scheurichs suggestion of epistemological and ontological actions, I untangle and position these intersecting threads diagrammatically as axes. First, a vertical axis, which I call Enunciating Otherness - depicting pedagogical discourses or discursive practices as enunciations that determine whom the problem group is. Then, a horizontal axis, which I call Objectifying Otherness representing institutional policies and mechanisms as disciplinary technologies or regimes of light ADDIN EN.CITE Deleuze1992131, p. 1607131Deleuze, Gilles1992What is a dispositif*?Armstrong, T.J.Michel Foucault: PhilosopherNew YorkHarvester Wheatsheaf159-168(Deleuze, 1992, p. 160) that illuminate certain particularities and formulate how the group is seen or known as a problem.
As a methodological metaphor, this is consistent with Foucaults (1972) suggestion that scholars tackle truth by questioning it as discursive formation. Here, the Enunciating Otherness Axis interrogates enunciations or discourses that speak to particular truths and the Objectifying Otherness Axis examines the institutional practices and mechanisms that intersect with the productive power of those discourses to produce a system of formation of certain truth-objects (Foucault, 1972).
Surveying the Local Terrain: public education in Queensland, Australia
The dominant conceptualization of ADHD is that it is a neurological disorder affecting processing speed, abstract thought, impulse control, short-term memory and behaviour - over which the child has no control (Augustine & Damico, 1995; Thompson, 1996; Green & Chee, 1997; Forness & Kavale, 2001; Purdie et al., 2002; Holmes, 2004). Comprehensive analysis of policy documents and related literature indicates, however, that the Department of Education in the north-eastern Australian state of Queensland does not recognise ADHD as a discrete disorder or a learning difficulty/disability. Interestingly, nor does Education Queensland specifically discuss ADHD within the rhetoric espousing inclusive initiatives.
Since the diagnostic rate of ADHD and concomitant prescription rate for stimulant medications have increased dramatically in Australia over the past decade, one would assume that engagement with this phenomenon would feature prominently in education department literature that speaks to innovation in pedagogical delivery, tolerance of difference and inclusiveness. Instead discussion of behaviour, whether disruptive, disordered or disturbed is consolidated within behaviour management policy and programs. Problematically, the nature of behaviour and what it indicates is left wide-open and even more vulnerable to subjective interpretation.
Many of the behavioural characteristics said to indicate Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are listed as indicators for other diagnostic categories, including: learning difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Speech/Language Impairment, Hearing Impairment and Vision Impairment. Through their enunciation within Appraisement Intervention and Ascertainment/EAP (assessment practices that seek to appropriate special needs support funding for children experiencing difficulties in learning) not only do these characteristics become pathological markers but they encourage teachers to adopt a diagnostic lens. Children whose suspect academic progress and/or personal demeanour correlates with any of these characteristics can come to be constituted as something Other than normal via institutional mechanisms of visibility (Deleuze, 1992).
Looking to mechanisms of visibility
Despite ample research pointing to the stigmatising and exclusionary effects of needs-based identification mechanisms ADDIN EN.CITE Vlachou20041250125Vlachou, Anastasia2004Education and inclusive policy-making: implications for research and practiceInternational Journal of Inclusive Education813-21inclusive education researchEducation and Inclusive policy-makingsalamanca statement, inclusion policies, disability discriminationGrahamin press2230223Graham, LindaSlee, R.in pressAn Illusory Interiority: interrogating the discourse/s of inclusionEducational Philosophy and Theoryhttp://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Graham,_Linda.htmlSlee20011260126Slee, RogerAllan, Julie2001Excluding the Included: a recognition of inclusive educationInternational Studies in Sociology of Education112173-191inclusive education research(Slee & Allan, 2001; Vlachou, 2004; Graham & Slee, in press), the Queensland Government education system uses normative assessment methods to identify children falling below the specified level of acceptable proficiency (Graham, 2006a, p. 9), who may require additional resources for learning ADDIN EN.CITE 200168Education Queensland, 16682001Appraisement Intervention: Literacy and NumeracyBrisbaneEducation Queensland: Queensland GovernmentAccessed 2004http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/advocacy/access/equity/students/inclusion/learning/appraisment.htmlSecond EditionAppraisement InterventionAppraisementwww.education.qld.gov.au20022516252002Ascertainment Revised Procedures and Support MaterialsBrisbaneEducation Queensland: Queensland GovernmentAccessed 200418th Marchhttp://education.qld.gov.au/students/special_education/ascertainment/pdfs/procedures-forms.pdfJuly 2002Policy RevisionAscertainment Procedureswww.education.qld.gov.au(Education Queensland, 2001a; 2002a). In the early years of schooling these mechanisms include:
The Developmental Continua and associated Year 2 Diagnostic Net: a state-wide testing regimen that plots a childs rate of progress against developmental norms. After 15 months, progress is compared to benchmark standards. Those falling below are then targeted with short-term support programs;
Appraisement Intervention: a school-based identification process used to assess children suspected of having a learning difficulty/disability; and,
Ascertainment Procedures/Education Adjustment Program (EAP): a procedural process used to ascertain children suspected of having a recognised disability and the nature and level of required support.
The problem is that whilst Education Queensland policy mechanisms are actively constructing categories of disability and learning disability in order to appropriate special needs funding and resources, an incidental category is constructed by virtue of these normalising identification processes. In identifying deviance from a normative standard, these mechanisms operate to define normal/abnormal ways of being. The institutional demarcation of the categories normal, disabled and learning disabled inadvertently acts to stigmatize children whose particular difference does not quite fit within these parameters or might otherwise be described in deficit terms.
First, it must be acknowledged that the Department may be trying to prevent the construction of yet another category in their avoidance of ADHD. Second, the intent of support mechanisms may well be to support difficulties in learning arising from any number of causal factors and departmental stipulation of further categories (i.e. within Appraisement Intervention) would further exacerbate the occurrence of children falling in/out of boxes. However, policy is but one thread or aspect of a problem and policy intent can be melded at the level of the school through interpretation and implementation ADDIN EN.CITE Goodwin1996202Goodwin, Ness1996Queensland Secondary Schools - 1971-1994: Changing the Operation of PowerMelbourne Studies in Education37189-1031996Foucaultian genealogy of educational mechanismsQLD Secondary SchoolsDevolution, DOEM, Foucault, governmentality, case studies(Goodwin, 1996).
Regardless of how well-intended, this lack of specificity is dangerous in itself because it invites an interpretive leap through which meaning, victim to the always-already in language, becomes vulnerable to (re)constitution via dominant discourses that effectively construct what it is possible to think ADDIN EN.CITE Fendler2003102, p. 210102Fendler, Lynn2003Teacher Reflection in a Hall of Mirrors: Historical Influences and Political ReverberationsEducational Researcher32316-25(Fendler, 2003, p. 21). Teachers who describe a childs behaviour as hyperactive, distractible, or impulsive set a different ship in motion than do teachers who describe a child as having difficulty in what the Department calls learning how to learn ADDIN EN.CITE 200168Education Queensland, , p. 416682001Appraisement Intervention: Literacy and NumeracyBrisbaneEducation Queensland: Queensland GovernmentAccessed 2004http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/advocacy/access/equity/students/inclusion/learning/appraisment.htmlSecond EditionAppraisement InterventionAppraisementwww.education.qld.gov.au(Education Queensland, 2001a, p. 4). Unfortunately, the dominance of deficit and psychobiological discourses in describing a childs abilities and difficulties may well determine whether a bright, active but bored child comes to be described as attention deficit disordered. The discourses we draw on to describe childrens behaviour can have dangerous effects, and so it is to an examination of discourse that I now turn.
Speaking of disorderly objects
In theorizing the tactics related to the production of psychiatric truth and the development of a power/knowledge specific to the human sciences, Foucault (1972, p. 46) argues that psychiatric discourse finds a way of limiting its domain, of defining what it is talking about, of giving it the status of an object and therefore of making it manifest, nameable, and describable. He maintains that the construction of categories and description of disorders (such as the evolving descriptions within the American Psychiatric Associations DSM-IV-TR) serves to provide the human sciences with a locatable object of scrutiny. As I have described elsewhere ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20061660166Graham, Linda2006Caught in the Net: A Foucaultian interrogation of the incidental effects of limited notions of "inclusion"International Journal of Inclusive Education1013-24(Graham, 2006a), education department literature in Queensland is populated throughout by unspecified psychiatric terminology consistent with DSM-IV nomenclature. Such use of behavioural descriptors synonymous with the diagnostic criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the schooling context, could arguably function with constitutive and interpellative effect (Foucault, 1972; Althusser, 1971; Butler, 1997).
Recognising ADHD
As Butler (1997, p. 5, original emphasis) argues, [o]ne exists not only by virtue of being recognized, but, in a prior sense, by being recognizable. It would be reasonable then to argue that description of behaviour as hyperactive, distractible and/or impulsive is one of the means by which disordered discursive objects (Deleuze, 1988) become articulated and made manifest in a form that is recognizable (Butler, 1997). Such terms, however innocently they may be used, act as psychobiological markers which link directly to the discourses of the human sciences. If used to describe child behaviour, their invocation results in the child being viewed through a clinical lens and their actions interpreted through a specific repertoire of knowledge, according to which the expert makes their diagnosis. Hence, the use of such terms effectively speaks into existence the behaviourally disordered school child as a recognizable (Butler, 1997) object of discourse (Foucault, 1972, p. 50).
The definition of characteristics consistent with ADHD diagnostic criteria within the various discourses of schooling achieves three things. First, through their enunciation within policy that seeks to ameliorate educational difficulties arising from individual deficit, these characteristics become synonymous with and indicative of pathology and thus, children displaying such characteristics fall under a diagnostic gaze. Second, the lack of distinction in departmental literature invites an interpretive leap through which meaning becomes vulnerable to (re)constitution via the traces of psycho-biological discourse within the everyday language used to describe child behaviour. This directly calls into play the specific and technical discourse (Slee, 1995, p. 168), administered by the experts of childhood disorderedness. Finally, as a result, the discursive construction of particular children as a particular kind of disorderly transfers sovereignty over the body of the disruptive school child from the domain of schooling to the converging domains of the human sciences, relinquishing educations responsibility for and to the now psychiatrically/behaviourally disordered Other. This comes about through the use of complex discursive dividing practices.
Discursive dividing practices
In establishing and reading an initial corpus for my doctoral project, I isolated three main discursive threads that related to the constitution of disorderly, deviant or disruptive student-subjects. These were:
the discourse/s of inclusion ADDIN EN.CITE Grahamin press2230223Graham, LindaSlee, R.in pressAn Illusory Interiority: interrogating the discourse/s of inclusionEducational Philosophy and Theoryhttp://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Graham,_Linda.html(Graham & Slee, in press),
the discourse/s of reform in education ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20052633263Graham, Linda J.2005(Re)Visioning the Centre: QSE-2010 and the quest for the cosmopolitan childPhilosophy in Education Society of Australasia (PESA) Annual Conference, Hong Kong. Available at: http://www.pesa.org.au/html/04cal.htm1-16(Graham, 2005c) and,
pedagogical discourse/s or the things said about kids in schools ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20072820282Graham, Linda2007, in pressSpeaking of 'disorderly' objects: a poetics of pedagogical discourseDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education281(Graham, 2007, in press).
Each of these discursive threads bears influence on the construction of particular subject-positions. In order to determine that influence and its effects, I used an approach to discourse analysis that I developed with reference to the work of Foucault ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20054243424Graham, Linda J.2005"Doing" discourse analysis using FoucaultAustralian Assocation for Research in Education 2005 Annual Conference, 27th Nov - 1 Dec. Available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Graham,_Linda.htmlSydneyGraham20072820282Graham, Linda2007, in pressSpeaking of 'disorderly' objects: a poetics of pedagogical discourseDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education281Graham20052993299Graham, Linda2005Discourse Analysis and the Critical Use of FoucaultAustralian Association for Research in Education Annual ConferenceSydney, Nov 27th-1st DecAARE(Graham, 2005a; Graham, 2005b; Graham, 2007, in press). This approach allowed me to investigate the constitutive and political effects of these discourses and how they may work to (re)secure dominant relations of power and legitimise exclusion by constructing:
a sociopolitical centre from which the designation of marginal positions becomes possible ADDIN EN.CITE Grahamin press2230223Graham, LindaSlee, R.in pressAn Illusory Interiority: interrogating the discourse/s of inclusionEducational Philosophy and Theoryhttp://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Graham,_Linda.html(Graham & Slee, in press);
notions regarding the proper and improper ways of being in the schooling context ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20052633263Graham, Linda J.2005(Re)Visioning the Centre: QSE-2010 and the quest for the cosmopolitan childPhilosophy in Education Society of Australasia (PESA) Annual Conference, Hong Kong. Available at: http://www.pesa.org.au/html/04cal.htm1-16(Graham, 2005c); and,
unreasoned but still punishable student-subjects ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20072820282Graham, Linda2007, in pressSpeaking of 'disorderly' objects: a poetics of pedagogical discourseDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education281(Graham, 2007, in press).
In effect, each of these discourses work to define the problem child, whilst simultaneously disguising the problems in/of schooling. In the following section, I will discuss how each of these discourses play out and in doing so, what they do.
1. An Illusory Interiority: interrogating the discourse/s of inclusion
It is generally accepted that the notion of inclusion derived or evolved from the practices of mainstreaming or integrating students with disabilities into regular schools. However, limited notions and models of inclusion, such as those realised through resourcing mechanisms that ensure the objectivisation of individual difference, result not only in an ever more complex and insidious exclusion but arguably work to refine schooling as a field of application for disciplinary power ADDIN EN.CITE Haynes2005389Marshall, 1997 as cited in 0389Haynes, Bruce2005The paradox of the excluded childEducational Philosophy and Theory373333-341(Marshall, 1997 as cited in Haynes, 2005). In seeking to know the particularities of individual school children, resourcing mechanisms such as Education Queenslands Ascertainment/EAP ADDIN EN.CITE 200225Education Queensland, 16252002Ascertainment Revised Procedures and Support MaterialsBrisbaneEducation Queensland: Queensland GovernmentAccessed 200418th Marchhttp://education.qld.gov.au/students/special_education/ascertainment/pdfs/procedures-forms.pdfJuly 2002Policy RevisionAscertainment Procedureswww.education.qld.gov.au(Education Queensland, 2002a) and Appraisement Intervention ADDIN EN.CITE 200168Education Queensland, 16682001Appraisement Intervention: Literacy and NumeracyBrisbaneEducation Queensland: Queensland GovernmentAccessed 2004http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/advocacy/access/equity/students/inclusion/learning/appraisment.htmlSecond EditionAppraisement InterventionAppraisementwww.education.qld.gov.au(Education Queensland, 2001a), allow for the differentiation between and validation/invalidation of different ways of being. Such normalising lenses, ushered into schools under the pretext of better resourcing the included, further open-up schools to a technique of government that Foucault ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault1975140, p. 527140Foucault, M.197512 February 1975Marchetti, V.Salomoni, A.Ewald, F.Fontana, A.Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France 1974-1975LondonVerso137-166(1975b, p. 52) calls discipline-normalisation, thus providing the means by which we make judgements about the character, ability and future of different school children.
For the differentiation, categorisation and spatialisation of individuals to become possible, one must have a common referent to consult. This was achieved by the human sciences through the construction of the norm ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault197753153Foucault, M.1977Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prisonLondonPenguin BooksA. Sheridan, trans.Foucault19751277127Foucault, M.197515 January 1975Marchetti, V.Salomoni, A.Ewald, F.Fontana, A.Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France 1974-1975LondonVerso31-54Burchell, GrahamAbnormalFoucault197246146Foucault, M.1972The Archaeology of KnowledgeNew YorkPantheon Books(A.M. Sheridan Smith, trans.)(Foucault, 1972; 1975c; 1977) securing psychologys role in governing the soul through techniques of normalisation and the strategic stimulation of subjectivity, anxiety and desire ADDIN EN.CITE Rose1990165, p. 41165Rose, Nikolas1990Governing the soul: the shaping of the private selfLondonRoutledge(Rose, 1990, p. 4). Under the sustained and combined influence of the medical and psychological disciplines, educationalists have become used to thinking in terms of the norm and categorising educational endeavour according to abstract notions of intelligence ADDIN EN.CITE Flynn19971510151Flynn, Mark1997The Concept of Intelligence in Psychology as a Fallacy of Misplaced ConcretenessInterchange282231-244(Flynn, 1997) and developmental age/stage theory ADDIN EN.CITE Walkerdine198431731Walkerdine, Valerie1984Developmental psychology and the child-centred pedagogy: the insertion of Piaget into early educationHenriques, J., Holloway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., & Walkerdine, V.Changing the Subject: Psychology, social regulation and subjectivityLondonMethuen & Co.153-202Changing the Subjecttheory, foucaultian(Walkerdine, 1984). These knowledge domains have provided the school with the technologies and discourses with which to demarcate difference.
Inclusion and exclusion are produced through normalising discourses that affirm or negate particular ways of being. This confers privilege upon those whose characteristics align with predicated social norms. In a movement that speaks of the eternal return ADDIN EN.CITE Derrida19671817181Derrida, Jacques1967Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human SciencesWriting and DifferenceLondonRoutledgeAlan Bass(Derrida, 1967), those individuals in positions of power gazing from the vantage of privilege set the parameters of normality and manage the markers of difference. Thus, those at centre ride the boundaries determining centricity and ex-centricity. However, privilege and position at centre is dependent upon the subjection and marginalisation of the Other. The maintenance of positions of power through discursive dividing practices that (re)secure domination and privilege, results in the reinstatement of the politic of the powerful. As it occurs in other socio-political spaces, such discursive practices permeate public education and policy.
2. (Re)Visioning the Centre: education reform and the ideal citizen of the future
Discourses of public education reform position schooling as a panacea to pervasive social instability and a means to achieve a new consensus. However, in unravelling the many conflicting statements that conjoin to form education policy and inform related literature ADDIN EN.CITE Ball199382082Ball, Stephen1993What is Policy: texts, trajectories and toolboxesDiscourse13210-17(Ball, 1993), it becomes clear that education reform discourse is polyvalent (Foucault, 1977). Alongside visionary statements that speak of public education as a vehicle for social justice are the (re)visionary or those reflecting neoliberal individualism and a conservative politics.
The latter coagulate to form strategic discursive practices which work to (re)secure dominant relations of power, privileging contemporary cultural norms whilst discursively objectifying particular groups of children as deviant. This works to naturalise traditional schooling, while at the same time concealing chronic institutional and cultural impairment (Slee, 1996, p. 6). The casualties of this (re)vision and the refusal to investigate the pathologies of traditional schooling are the children who, for whatever reason, do not conform to the norm of the desired school child as an ideal citizen-in-the-making.
The prevalence of meta-discourses that speak to notions of the ideal work to produce proper and improper ways of being in the schooling context, constituting an ethereal Other; the student not suited to traditional schooling ADDIN EN.CITE 200269Education Queensland, , p. 1610692002Education and Training Reforms for the Future: A White Paper (ETRF)QueenslandGovernmentBrisbaneQueensland Government200414th SeptemberETRFETRF, disruptive, traditional schooling, VEThttp://education.qld.gov.au/etrf/whitepaper/pdfs/whitepaper.pdf(Education Queensland, 2002b). This ethereal Other is, however, a nebulous shape-shifter that in connecting with the negative things said about kids in schools ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20074290429Graham, Linda2007Speaking of 'disorderly' objects: a poetics of pedagogical discourseDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education281(Graham, 2007a), finally materialises in an embodied, locatable state. Therefore, whilst the disordered child may not be explicitly identified within Education Queensland assessment literature, strategic discursive practices quietly construct an anomalous mixed figure the individual who cannot be integrated within the normative system of education ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault1975466, p. 2917466Foucault, M.197519 March 1975Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France 1974-1975LondonVerso Books(Foucault, 1975d, p. 291). The malleability of this figure means that more distinct discursive-objects can be super-imposed, bringing into being abnormal individuals and abnormal conduct ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault1975140, p. 1637140Foucault, M.197512 February 1975Marchetti, V.Salomoni, A.Ewald, F.Fontana, A.Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France 1974-1975LondonVerso137-166(Foucault, 1975b, p. 163).
3. Things said about kids in schools
The medicalisation of popular discourse has influenced the words people use to describe childhood behaviour, in turn affecting how an individuals behaviour comes to be interpreted ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20062297229Graham, Linda2006Done in by discourse... or the problem/s with labellingKeeffe, MaryCarrington, SuzanneSchools and DiversitySydneyPearsons Education(Graham, 2006b). In drawing on this seemingly innocuous, everyday language to describe childrens behaviour ADDIN EN.CITE Danforth2001505Danforth, ScotNavarro, Virginia2001Hypertalk: sampling the social construction of ADHD in everyday languageAnthropology and Education Quarterly322167-187Jun 2001Discourse analysis, ADHDHypertalk01617761ADHD, discursive practices(Danforth & Navarro, 2001), teachers leave behind psychobiological markers which (re)constitute in conjunction with those specific and technical discourses administered by the medical and psychological knowledge-domains surrounding the school ADDIN EN.CITE Slee199550150Slee, Roger1995Changing Theories and Practices of DisciplineLondonThe Falmer Presscontrol in education(Slee, 1995).
Psychological discourses that speak to self-regulation and reason disseminate universalising theories of cognition and development that exclude through systems of recognition, divisions, and distinctions that construct reason and the reasonable person ADDIN EN.CITE Popkewitz2001134, p. 3367134Popkewitz, Thomas S.2001Dewey and Vygotsky: Ideas in Historical SpacesPopkewitz, Thomas S.Franklin, Barry M.Pereyra, Miguel A.Cultural History and Education: Critical Essays on Knowledge and SchoolingNew YorkRoutledgeFarmer(Popkewitz, 2001, p. 336). Similarly, the constitutive effects of pedagogical discourse imbued with the positivity of psychological power/knowledge ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault19801941194Foucault, Michel1980Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-1977Colin GordonNew YorkPantheon(Foucault, 1980a) work to speak into existence the behaviourally disordered school child as a recognisable object of scrutiny ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20064303430Graham, Linda2006Speaking of 'disorderly' objects: a poetics of pedagogical discourseAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) 2006 Annual Conference, April 6-11San FranciscoAvailable from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Graham,_Linda.html(Graham, 2006c). The dominance and dispersion of such statements privilege a particular constituting field of power/knowledge which acts to legitimise and bring into operation the practices that derive from such statements (such as time-out, detention and suspension), whilst simultaneously disguising their exclusionary logic.
Such rearticulation of the conditions of exclusion is reliant upon the arbitrating discourse of the human sciences ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault19801117111Foucault, M.1980Two LecturesGordon, ColinPower/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-1977New YorkPantheon Books78-108Graham20052633263Graham, Linda J.2005(Re)Visioning the Centre: QSE-2010 and the quest for the cosmopolitan childPhilosophy in Education Society of Australasia (PESA) Annual Conference, Hong Kong. Available at: http://www.pesa.org.au/html/04cal.htm1-16(Foucault, 1980c; Graham, 2005c), whose norms of participation ADDIN EN.CITE Popkewitz20002120212Popkewitz, ThomasLindblad, Sverker2000Educational Governance and Social Inclusion and Exclusion: some conceptual difficulties and problematics in policy and researchDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education2115-44Popkewitz20041747174Popkewitz, Thomas S.2004The Reason of Reason: Cosmopolitanism and the Government of SchoolingBernadette M. BakerKatharina E. HeyningDangerous Coagulations: The Uses of Foucault in the Study of EducationNew YorkPeter Lang(Popkewitz & Lindblad, 2000; Popkewitz, 2004) serve to establish a causal link between exclusion and the recalcitrant, unreasoned child who chooses to make the wrong choices ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20052633263Graham, Linda J.2005(Re)Visioning the Centre: QSE-2010 and the quest for the cosmopolitan childPhilosophy in Education Society of Australasia (PESA) Annual Conference, Hong Kong. Available at: http://www.pesa.org.au/html/04cal.htm1-16(Graham, 2005c). However, whilst the child may be viewed as mad, bad and/or sad ADDIN EN.CITE Laws200036036Laws, CathDavies, Bronwyn2000Poststructuralist theory in practice: working with "behaviourally disturbed" childrenQualitative Studies in Education13205-2212000Foucaultian critique of behaviour disorderWorking with "behaviourally disturbed" childrenbehaviour disorder, psychological discourse, foucault,(Laws & Davies, 2000), through the discourse/s of the human sciences, a moral requalification of the subject takes place and any assertion that the child is not responsible (or punishable) for his actions is counteracted. In this way performances come to be seen as confirmation of an innate characteristic ADDIN EN.CITE Rasmussen200399, p. 30099Rasmussen, Mary LouiseHarwood, Valerie2003Performativity, Youth and Injurious SpeechTeaching Education14125-36(Rasmussen & Harwood, 2003, p. 30), and the childs actions are seen as revealing truths about the self (Foucault, 1975). Thus, through the use of deficit discourses which establish a clinical lens, in the behaviours of a disruptive child we see, a certain way of being, a certain habitual way of behaving and a mode of life that exhibits little that is good ADDIN EN.CITE Foucault1975139, p. 1247139Foucault, M.19755 February 1975Marchetti, V.Salomoni, A.Ewald, F.Fontana, A.Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France 1974-1975LondonVerso109-136(Foucault, 1975a, p. 124).
Out of mind out of site
The effect of the discursive positioning of particular children who display particular kinds of behaviours is to produce a child who is not exactly disabled but who is disordered and definitely not normal. Through the institutional demarcation of the categories normal, learning disabled and disabled, this child comes to fall outside recognised disability/learning disability support categories ADDIN EN.CITE Graham20061660166Graham, Linda2006Caught in the Net: A Foucaultian interrogation of the incidental effects of limited notions of "inclusion"International Journal of Inclusive Education1013-24(Graham, 2006a) and into other programs and alternative sites ADDIN EN.CITE 200180Education Queensland, , p. 410802001Defining Students with Disabilities in Queensland State Schools: Discussion Stimulus Paper (August 2001)EducationQueenslandDiscussion Stimulus Paper (August 2001)BrisbaneEducation QueenslandAugustDefining Students with Disabilitieshttp://education.qld.gov.au/students/special_education/sep/dp_def_swd.docMCEETYA200546216462MCEETYA2005Initiatives targeting Recommendation 21: Queensland - Alternative Schooling ProvisionMinisterial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth AffairsStepping ForwardMelbourneCurriculum Corporationwww.mceetya.edu.au/stepping/projects/21Bouhours20034107410Bouhours, ThierryBryer, FionaFleming, Susan2003Exclusion of primary school students: Archival analysis of school records over a 30-year periodBartlett, B.Bryer, F.Roebuck,D.Re-imagining practice - Researching changeBrisbaneSchool of Cognition, Language and Special Education, Griffith University1102-114(Education Queensland, 2001b, p. 4; Bouhours et al., 2003; MCEETYA, 2005).
This is a child who comes to be perceived as disordered but who, through complex discursive practices, still retains a faculty of choice ADDIN EN.CITE Marshall20012170217Marshall, James D.2001Varieties of Neo-liberalism: a Foucaultian perspectiveEducational Philosophy and Theory333 & 4293-304(Marshall, 2001) and the responsibility for using it (or not - as the case may be, see Graham, 2005c, 2007).
The resulting psychopathologisation of the child serves to efface the responsibility of the school. The definition of a child as disorderly transfers sovereignty over the body of the disruptive school child from the domain of schooling to the converging domains of the human sciences, relinquishing educations responsibility for and to the now psychiatrically/behaviourally disordered Other. This convergence around the scene of the school has worked to refine schooling as a site for disciplinary power via the ab-normalisation of child behaviour, to subordinate and colonise the professional knowledge/s of teachers; and finally, provide schools and teachers with an e/scape-goat - an excuse for schooling failure in the form of the ADHD child: the sick but somehow, bad and therefore, punishable chooser.
The question remains as to who benefits most.
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Differentiation between disorders is not made for girls in this report.
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References
i.e. policy documents, such as Queensland State Education 2010 ADDIN EN.CITE 20006710672000Queensland State Education - 2010 (QSE-2010)BrisbaneEducation Queensland, Queensland Government15th SeptemberQSE-2010QSE-2010http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/qse2010/pdf/strategy.pdf(2000b). Queensland State Education - 2010 (QSE-2010). (Brisbane, Education Queensland, Queensland Government). and the Education Training Reforms of the Future ADDIN EN.CITE 20026910692002Education and Training Reforms for the Future: A White Paper (ETRF)QueenslandGovernmentBrisbaneQueensland Government200414th SeptemberETRFETRF, disruptive, traditional schooling, VEThttp://education.qld.gov.au/etrf/whitepaper/pdfs/whitepaper.pdf(2002b). Education and Training Reforms for the Future: A White Paper (ETRF). Queensland and Government. (Brisbane, Queensland Government). 2004., plus related departmental literature such as behaviour management plans, magazines for parents, scholarly articles, teacher referrals to behaviour modification programs, press releases, news stories, and general educational literature
Ascertainment is a resourcing model that aims to appropriately provide support services to students with disabilities in schools. Ascertainment is currently being phased out in Queensland, over the 3 years from 2005. The replacement model is Education Adjustment Program or EAP. The report findings from the Ministerial Taskforce on Inclusive Education (Students with Disabilities) were instrumental in Queenslands redevelopment of Ascertainment, and a great deal of the Taskforces recommendations were heeded. However, relevant to the argument being made here is that EAP is no different to Ascertainment in its reliance upon deficit/medical model descriptions of impairment and the restrictive recognition of six relatively narrow categories of disability; Intellectual Impairment, Physical Impairment, Vision Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Speech/Language Impairment and Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
Appraisment Intervention is similarly an identification/resourcing model used in Queensland Schools to identify and support children with learning difficulties and/or learning disability.
This includes, for example, those who decide what is pathological behaviour and entextualise constructions of normality/abnormality in the DSM-IV-TR; those who make decisions in psychiatric offices about whether parent/teacher reports of problematic child behaviour fits within any of these evolving categories; to individual teachers who interpret certain classroom behaviours as normal/acceptable and others as abnormal/unacceptable.
Enuciating Otherness
Objectifying Otherness
Objectifying Otherness Axis
Enunciating Otherness Axis
Enuciating Otherness Axis
Objectifying Otherness Axis
Developmental Continua
Year 2 Diagnostic Net
Appraisement Intervention
Ascertainment/EAP
Normal?
Abnormal?
Learning difficulty?
Disabled
Enuciating Otherness
Objectifying Otherness
Enuciating Otherness Axis
Objectifying Otherness Axis
Inclusion?
Enuciating Otherness Axis
Objectifying Otherness Axis
Inclusion?
Neoliberal education reform
Enuciating Otherness Axis
Objectifying Otherness
Inclusion?
Neoliberal education reform
Pedagogical discourse/s
Developmental Continua
Year 2 Diagnostic Net
Appraisement Intervention
Ascertainment/EAP
Inclusion
Neoliberal education reform
Pedagogical discourse/s
Normal?
Abnormal?
Learning difficulty?
Disability?
Something Other?
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