Constructing impairment and disability in school reading schemes

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the cultural construction of disability detailed within school reading schemes. The study by the employment of proto-text analysis followed the ‘reading journeys’ that a four- and five-year-old child experienced during the course of one academic year. The study examined 61 reading books that contained 2199 illustrations, 100 photographs and 1006 pages of text. The major finding of the research is that the reading schemes contained a limited construction of disability and one that was contextualised within medical deficit and narrative prosthesis. The research concludes that school reading schemes are potentially acting as a Trojan horse to introduce a page thin hegemonic that inculcates young children into the systems of dominance and ‘ableist’ agendas which are seemingly replete in our society.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• impairment
• school reading schemes
• narrative prosthesis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3524.Joyce_Carol_Oates

2. Whilst data on gender and race are reported here, there is no space to develop any significant analysis. They are reported, therefore, as purely an illustrative category that depicts the frequency of representation.