Reconstituting the ADHD girl: accomplishing exclusion and solidifying a biomedical identity in an ADHD class

Abstract

In this study, we explore what happens to young people labelled as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after they have been excluded from mainstream class and placed in a special class. More specifically, we focus on how a specific disability identity is locally accomplished and ascribed to a girl placed in an ADHD class containing only boys. Data are drawn from the communication books that regularly passed between the parents and teachers, and from ethnographic work in a special class for children aged 7–12 years diagnosed with ADHD, during a period of one school year. We draw on ethnomethodology, especially membership categorisation analysis, when investigating unfolding trajectories of shifting identifications during a school year. The detailed analysis reveals that the girl is accomplished as capable of managing her life in school at the beginning of the year, but by the end is constructed as disabled and identified as a typical ADHD girl in very subtle ways in the teacher's communication with the parents. Furthermore, our analysis highlights how the process of exclusion and social identification of the girl as a typical ADHD girl is mutually constructed and achieved across classroom activities in everyday schooling contexts.

Keywords:

• ADHD
• gender
• exclusion
• special education
• ethnomethodology
• identity

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this paper was funded by the Swedish Research Council. We are grateful for this support.

Notes on contributors

Eva Hjörne is Director of the Platform for Research in Inclusive Education and School Development (PRIS), at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interests are in the analysis of learning and social interaction, processes of marginalisation and mediated action with special focus on categorising and identity formation of students in school.

Ann-Carita Evaldsson is Professor in Education, Uppsala University, Sweden. Her area of expertise is children's peer language practices, addressing topics such as play, morality, multilingualism, bullying and identity-work (gender, class, ethnicity and disability) as socially situated phenomenon. The research draws on a peer language socialisation approach, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis.