Special needs: a philosophical analysis

This paper attempts to illuminate a central concept and idea in special education discourse, namely, ‘special needs’. It analyses philosophically what needs are and on what grounds they are defined as ‘special’ or ‘exceptional’. It also discusses whether sorting needs into ordinary and special is discriminatory. It is argued that individualistic tendency in special need rhetoric has serious shortcomings, although it does not inevitably lead to discrimination against those with ‘special needs’. Improving individuals’ capabilities as well as social conditions are the means to create societies and schools which are inclusive, and which put justice into practice.

The moral significance of intellectual disabilities

Self-pathologizing, self-condemning, self-liberating: Youths' accounts of their ADHD-related behavior

This study analyzes the discursive construction of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and self in relation to a socioculturally shared understanding of moral norms. Thirteen Finnish youth aged 11 to 16 diagnosed with ADHD were interviewed during this discourse analysis study. The youth accounted for their culturally undesirable behavior, performance and traits through three different types of accounts: (1) externalizing personal responsibility due to a compelling medical condition, (2) internalizing personal responsibility through moral self-condemnation, and (3) distancing oneself from the socially imposed stereotypes and stigmas related to ADHD. This study challenges dominant…

Philosophy and science: the axes of evil in disability studies?

In this review, I concentrate on analysing the response Tom Shakespeare’s Disability rights and wrongs has awoken in the disability studies community. I argue that the complicated relationship between politics and science is the underlying cause for many controversies in disability studies. The research field should regain its autonomy and scrutinise properly its ontological premises. The field of disability studies in the UK is in turmoil. During the past 10 years or so, there have been several debates that have revolved around the social model of disability. The latest source of a heated debate is Tom Shakespeare’s Disability rights and wrongs . Many of us working outside the UK have foll…

Power struggle, submission and partnership: Agency constructions of mothers of children with ADHD diagnosis in their narrated school involvement

The contemporary education paradigm highlights the interdependency of home and school expertise. This discourse analysis study examines the narrated agentive possibilities of 18 Finnish mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD to influence and be involved in their child's schooling. Mothers' strong involvement endeavor is premised on their expertise concerning ADHD, distrust of teachers' adequate knowledge of and attitude towards their child, and anxiety for their child's wellbeing. However, our analysis reveals a gap between the mothers' narrated potential agency to fight for her child's well-being and their actual capability to be involved as intended, due to unequal institutional power re…

Parental and professional agency in terminations for fetal anomalies: analysis of Finnish women's accounts

This study explores the construction of parental and professional agency in the written accounts by women who have undergone selective abortion (N=8). The analysis of the data was based on qualitative, linguistic discourse analysis. The accounts indicate that the mothers themselves exhibited both strong and weak agency during the process of prenatal diagnosis. The role of the professionals was usually discussed in these accounts concerning only the phases of pregnancy when something out of ordinary had been detected. After the termination, the mothers expressed that they were forced to exhibit strong agency and find ways to cope with their distress unaided due to a lack of professional supp…

Is it wrong to deliberately conceive or give birth to a child with mental retardation?

This paper discusses the issues of deciding to have a child with mental retardation, and of terminating a pregnancy when the future child is known to have the same disability. I discuss these problems by criticizing a utilitarian argument, namely, that one should act in a way that results in less suffering and less limited opportunity in the world. My argument is that future parents ought to assume a strong responsibility towards the well-being of their prospective children when they decide to reproduce. The moral point in cases in which our acts affect the well-being of future children should be expressed strictly in terms of parents' culpability. Future children thus do not have current m…

Staring: how we look

Staring: how we look, by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, New York, Oxford University Press, 2009, 244 pp., US$24.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-195-32680-2 I have always been a starer. People have reminded ...

A realist account of the ontology of impairment

This paper provides a philosophical analysis of the ontology of impairment, in part social and in part not. The analysis is based on the division between two categories of facts concerning the world we live in: "brute" and institutional facts. Brute facts are those that require no human institution for their existence. To state a brute fact requires naturally the institution of language, but the fact stated is not the same as the statement of it. For example, regardless of any human institution or opinion, the presence of an extra chromosome 21 is a brute fact, and despite of people's constructions or deconstructions, this fact remains. As for the lives of people with extra chromosome 21, t…

Newborn infants and the moral significance of intellectual disabilities.

This article presents moral philosophical arguments regarding life-saving medical treatment that may be more available to infants without disabilities than to infants with intellectual disabilities. The ideas are that children with disabilities are a burden to their families and to society and that a happy life may not be attainable for these children and their families. I argue that human well-being is not based merely on individual characteristics, but is a result of the individual's relation to other people. Further, children with disabilities are not inevitably a burden to their families or society. Accordingly, intellectual disability is not a sufficient reason for withholding life-sa…

‘The teacher almost made me cry’ Narrative analysis of teachers' reactive classroom management strategies as reported by students diagnosed with ADHD

This interview study addresses the gap in earlier research by focussing on the narratives of 13 ADHDdiagnosed Finnish students regarding teacher reactive classroom management strategies. The data are analysed through narrative analysis. Five different narrative types are identified, in which teacher behaviour is evaluated as (1) disproportionate, (2) traumatising, (3) neglectful, (4) unfair and (5) understanding. The dominant storyline e common to the first four types e constructed the narrator's transgression as contingent upon and a justified reaction to teacher conduct. The vicious cycle of coercive classroom management strategies and the culture of blame between students and teachers ar…