‘Learning Disabilities’ as a ‘Black Box’: On the Different Conceptions and Constructions of a Popular Clinical Entity in Israel

Abstract

This article aims to stimulate new thinking about learning disabilities than is customary in local literature. Previous educational and psychological studies concerning learning disabilities regarded them as if they were objective categories with formal definitions and criteria accepted in scholarly literature. Contrary to that, this article explores the various conceptions, constructions, and meanings of learning disabilities that comprise the narrative descriptions and explanations of didactic diagnosticians. For this purpose, 50 in-depth interviews were conducted. There are four sections. Part One lays out the theoretical and methodological background of the sociological and discursive debate about learning disabilities. Part Two explores the various main thematic aspects and narrative strategies that were used by the diagnosticians in their construction of their purportedly 'objective', 'a-historical', 'a-political' experts' narrative. The third part reveals the polyphonic multifaceted nature of the learning disabilities construct. The experts' narrative undermines the objective and homogeneous definitions in the literature by uncovering learning disabilities' heterogeneous meaning repertoire. This repertoire consists, among others, of conceptualizing disability as a 'disease', a 'symptom', a 'genetic defect', a 'disorder', an 'educational difficulty', a 'variance', and even a 'gift'. This part also reveals the experts' narrative reaction strategies to the aforementioned polyphonic spectacle. It is revealed that the interviewees' narrative deconstructs the 'scientific factual nature' of the clinical categories. The fourth part highlights a central paradox in the expert narrative: The tension between the narrative stigmatic-labeling aspects and the destigmatic-'liberating' aspects. The claim is made that this tension can partly explain the current popularity of the LD diagnosis. This article is the third in a series of papers that seeks to contribute to the creation of a more nuanced disability discourse by exposing its shaky scientific foundations.

The DSM and learning difficulties: formulating a genealogy of the learning-disabled subject

“…The importance of presenting the textual polyphony aided in eroding the homogeneous, static and consensual image of the text. Its importance also lies in the fact that it precedes similar tensions which find expression in the extra-textual discourse on learning-disabilities in Israel (Katchergin, 2009(Katchergin, , 2012a(Katchergin, , 2014a.…”

“…4 In effect, it is the main text whose symbolic authority provides the backing for the field of learning-disabilities in Israel and from which the diagnosticians, expert in learningdisabilities, draw their legitimacy. In the field of learning-disabilities, the DSM is considered to be the canonical text both by researchers and by diagnosticians (Katchergin, 2009(Katchergin, , 2012a(Katchergin, , 2014a. In their view, this is the text that underpins all aspects of accumulated knowledge about learningdisabilities.…”

“…The Ministry of Education, too, has adopted the American DSM's definition of learning-disability (in practice, learning-disorder). 5 It was further found that many professionals in Israel use the DSM in order to validate their conceptual and practical decisions in the field of learning-disabilities, even when the latter contradict what the text states (Katchergin, 2012a(Katchergin, , 2014a. These cases reveal the fact that the DSM has symbolic and authoritative functions for some of the professionals aside from its having value in terms of contents, diagnosis or therapy.…”

The medicalisation of learning difficulties through the prism of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological approach

“…It resulted in the deprivation of learning contexts and the neglect of contextual dimensions, as well as of the interactions between them (Chagas, 2017;Connor, 2013;Harwood & McMahon, 2014;Katchergin, 2012Katchergin, , 2015. This deprivation of context, parallel to certain economic, social and educational policies (Connor, 2013) has led to a ''pandemic'' of diagnoses, with groups of pupils being characterised as "learning disabled" (Chagas, 2017;Katchergin, 2014Katchergin, , 2015.…”

“It’s All in the Brain”?: An Invitation to Analyze the Discursive History of the Israeli Neurological Conceptualization of Learning-Disabilities

“…To date, few articles have been written on learning-disabilities in Israel from a sociological point of view. On these studies, seeAyalon and Margalit, 2004; Katchergin, 2012a Katchergin, , 2012bKatchergin, , 2014 See the definition of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities, 2006.…”