ERIC Number: EJ979840
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Aug
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0268-2141
EISSN: N/A
"Diff-ability" Not "Disability": Right-Brained Thinkers in a Left-Brained Education System
Edmonds, Casey
Support for Learning, v27 n3 p129-135 Aug 2012
This article draws on critical disability studies, challenging the exclusion of right-brained thinkers from an education system designed to privilege left-brained thinkers. It focuses on individuals who are labelled dyspraxic, providing data from qualitative interviews with adults about childhood experiences in school and the impact on their emotional well-being and peer relationships. Utilising Ornstein's pioneering research on the bilateral specialisation of the brain and hemispheric dominance in addition to a critical disability studies theoretical framework, this article innovatively argues that the fact that education in England continues to be delivered in a logical sequential form, even 40 years after Ornstein's work, is systemic discrimination in which dyspraxic children are constructed as "deviant". The article concludes by arguing that individuals with dyspraxia should be seen as having a "diff-ability" in thinking style rather than a disability and therefore recommends both change and awareness-raising at institutional level in the education system. (Contains 1 table.)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Brain Hemisphere Functions, Neurological Impairments, Developmental Disabilities, Motor Development, Motor Reactions, Perceptual Impairments, Attitudes toward Disabilities, Negative Attitudes, Disability Discrimination, Educational Experience, Context Effect, Self Concept, Critical Theory, Adults, Reflection, Time Perspective, Children, Cognitive Style
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A