Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Volume 16, Issue 3, Pages 249-264Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2010.481799
Keywords
ADHD; labelling; pre-service teachers; teacher education; Foucault; epistemology
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A study in an Australian university investigated 150 pre-service teachers' responses to and participation in discourses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Interesting data surfaced around the notion of 'labelling' children with ADHD. It seemed that the pre-service teachers did not believe 'ADHD' to be a label. Whilst the literature reviewed acknowledged diagnosing a child with ADHD to be tantamount to labelling (that is, 'ADHD' is a medical diagnostic label), the pre-service teachers in this study differentiated diagnosis from labelling and cast labelling as occurring in the classroom sometime pre- or post-diagnosis. Speaking of diagnosis and labelling in this way re-defines an object of dominant labelling discourse: 'doctor as labeller' is replaced with notions of 'teacher as labeller'. Using Foucault's 'rules of discursive formations' to frame its analysis, this study pondered the pre-service teachers' conceptions of labelling and in doing so revealed a 'teacher as labeller' discursive formation. This article provides examples of how this discursive formation features in pre-service teachers' talk and outlines an important implication of the 'teacher as labeller' discursive formation, namely that it enables teachers to cement their role in the ADHD medical diagnostic apparatus.
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