The Discursive Construction of Autism: Contingent Meanings of Autism and Therapeutic Talk

This dissertation was a discourse analysis study, drawing upon discursive psychology, poststructural understandings of discourse, conversation analysis, and a social relational model of disability. The purpose of this study was to explore how autism was performed as an interactional event among children with autism labels, the therapists who work with them, and their parents, in the context of a pediatric therapy setting. I interrogated how the participants’ everyday discursive practices were shaped and, at times, constrained by the social and political institutions that often work to define autism and the related, official plans of treatment. A total of 12 families agreed to participate, resulting in the participation of 12 children with autism labels, three to 11 years of age, six fathers, and 11 mothers. The participants included three speech therapists, two occupational therapists, one physical therapist, one teacher/social group facilitator, and one medical secretary/sibling support group facilitator. Data sources included conversational data from the therapy sessions of the participating children and their therapists, 14 parent interviews, eight therapist interviews, documents used within the therapy sessions, demographic surveys/information from the participating therapists and parents, and two interviews with a state advocate and clinical directors focused on qualifying for services. Findings from the interview data highlighted the varied meanings and performances of autism, while pointing to the related political and social conditions that make the naming and treating of autism (im)possible. Findings drawn from the therapy session data pointed to how the participants’ discursive practices worked to reframe “behaviors of concern,” and to transgress normative communication patterns. The following conclusions were drawn from the findings: (a) autism, as a construct, remains open to multiple meanings, while being inextricably linked to institutionalized practices; (b) in therapy talk, therapists and children with autism labels often co-construct alternative accounts of problematic behaviors; and (c) therapy talk can function to reframe non-normative communication and behavioral patterns, expanding what is constructed as “acceptable.” The findings point to the complexities of defining and performing autism labels, and highlight the ways in which therapy talk can function to reframe behaviors and communication patterns presumed to be pathological

Autoethnography in Practice: A Book Review of British Contemporary Ethnography

In this article, we consider and offer a review of the edited volume, Contemporary British Autoethnography (2013). Within this volume, the editors, Short, Turner, and Grant, bring together 15 autoethnographic representations, which address issues of subjectivity, voice, writing, knowing, and being. Each contributor offers insights located within a particular field(s), while simultaneously sharing perspectives related to the qualitative community more generally. In this paper, we provide a brief summary of each chapter and also offer several questions generated after engaging with this volume. We invite others to participate in considering how this volume may be applied to their own research and everyday lives

Pushing Me Through: A Poetic Representation

For many children and adults labeled learning disabled (LD), the very process of being identified and eventually labeled is oriented to as difficult to understand, disorienting, and just a taken-for-granted part of a system that names some ‘normal’, even gifted, while others are named abnormal. Minimal research exists that attends to the ways in which the official ways of talking about LDs are worked up in the everyday language of those most involved in the special education process, particularly the students themselves. Thus, in this article, we present, in an alternative form of writing (Richardson, 1997), a poetic representation of the words and experiences of one of our participants – Katrina – a student who participated in our research study

Naming and Un-Naming a Research Study Participatory

In this article, we explore our own discomfort with naming our research studies participatory action research – at least during the initial stages of our work – and highlight several practices that we believe serve to create greater researcher reflexivity. Drawing upon two different research studies, we share three “lessons from practice” generated from an analysis of our fieldnotes and a series of interactive interviews. The lessons illustrate how we have come to name and un-name our research “participatory.” We offer suggestions for other researchers committed to engaging in participatory action research

Teacher Educators' Varied Definitions of Learning Disabilities

Research continues to demonstrate that the ways in which current federal and working definitions of “learning disability” (LD) are troubling for researchers, teachers, parents and students. We are therefore interested in how teacher educators present the dilemmas associated with learning disabilities to their students, and the discursive repertoires (Wetherell, 1998) that they deploy while discussing learning disabilities. We orient to the idea of learning disabilities as a troubled construct, with people deploying multiple, polarized metaphors and themes when attempting to make sense of the meaning and “realness” of an LD. Since teachers’ knowledge, skills, and mindsets prior to teaching have an impact on their actions and orientations as teachers (Brownlee, 2001, 2004; Brownlee, Purdie, & Boulton-Lewis, 2001), we argue it is paramount to investigate teachers’ first exposure to complex constructs such as learning disabilities, attending to ways in which it is described and made relevant in talk. As such, we present the findings from a qualitative study, situated within a critical discursive psychology framework (Wetherell, 1998), focused on the ways in which teacher educators who were responsible for formally introducing preservice teachers to the construct of LD discussed and defined learning disabilities

Naming Children: the power-laden process of representing other’s identity(ies)

Drawing from an ethnographic study of the everyday practices of children with disability labels and a participatory action research project with Latino/a high school students and their teacher, we describe the process of inviting children to participate in selecting a pseudonym and generating descriptions of their identity(ies). We highlight how a relational ethic might be generated within this process and call for reflexivity when representing others\u27 identity(ies) and ways of being

Engaging Ethics in Postcritical Ethnography: Troubling Transparency, Trustworthiness, and Advocacy

In diesem Aufsatz befassen wir uns mit ethischen Herausforderungen, denen wir in einer vierjährigen postkritischen Ethnografie zu den Umsiedlungserfahrungen von Burundier*innen mit Flüchtlingsstatus begegnet waren, die in den südlichen Appalachen der Vereinigten Staaten leben. Wir diskutieren in unserem Beitrag, wie wir unsere Entscheidungen im Prozess abwägten, was und wie wir das, was wir lernten, teilten insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund, das zu schützen und in Ehren zu halten, was die Teilnehmenden erlebt hatten und uns mitteilten. Im Besonderen beziehen wir uns in der Rahmung unseres Entscheidungsfindungsprozesses auf die Konzepte der "praktizierten Ethik" oder "Ethik der Praxis" (ethics in practice) und der "relationalen Ethik" (relational ethics). Hierbei problematisieren wir die Verpflichtungen zu Transparenz, Vertrauenswürdigkeit und Fürsprache vor dem Hintergrund einer Auseinandersetzung mit Fragen der Verantwortung und Repräsentation. Wir schließen mit drei Erfahrungswerten hinsichtlich 1. des Werts der Generierung von mehrlagigen Beschreibungen; 2. des Potenzials von experimentellen Formen des Schreibens; und 3. der Bedeutung, die "relationaler Ethik" zukommt.In this article, we engage with some of the ethical challenges we faced during a four-year postcritical ethnography that focused on the resettlement experiences of Burundians with refugee status living in southern Appalachia in the United States.We discuss how we navigated decisions about what and how to share all that we learned, particularly as we sought to protect and honor what participants shared and experienced. Broadly, we frame our decision-making process in relation to the notions of ethics in practice and relational ethics. Notably, we complicate commitments to transparency, trustworthiness, and advocacy, as we examine issues of responsibility and representation. We conclude by offering three considerations or "lessons learned" for qualitative researchers, including the: 1. value of generating a layered account of experience; 2. potentiality of experimental forms of writing, and 3. importance of foregrounding relational ethics

“I’m Not Sure I Even Know”: Therapists’ Tentative Constructions of Autism

Autism has historically been constructed within and through biomedical discourses and practices. Therapeutic interventions have focused on “treating” and “curing” the individual diagnosed with autism, with therapists positioned as the “experts.” In this paper, we report findings from a discourse analysis informed by discursive psychology of eight interviews with therapists of children with autism labels. While the therapists were frequently positioned as “experts” with presumed “stocks of knowledge,” they were reluctant to definitively name autism as something with clearly defined characteristics, thereby making evident the shifting nature of knowledge surrounding what autism “really is.” We discuss implications for practitioners and others, as well as point to the importance of engaging in social constructionist studies of the discourses surrounding autism

Reflexivity, Transparency and Collaboration with Digital Tools

Conversations around the use of technology in support of qualitative research has frequently been limited to data collection, transcription and data analysis software. However, new tools also have the potential to enable greater researcher reflexivity, transparency of research decisions, and collaboration among researchers and researchers and participants. We present a conceptual framework for considering the affordances and constraints of the new tools in the context of qualitative inquir

The Ideological Dilemmas Inherent in Informal Learning Spaces: A Discourse Analysis of Preservice Teacher Talk

Informal learning spaces, such as summer reading programs, have the potential to both motivate children and provide opportunities for preservice teachers to try out new practices. However, there is little research on the talk that occurs in these informal learning spaces, particularly those intended to function as third spaces. Audio recordings of meetings between preservice teachers and high school students talking together about young adult literature in a space intended to function as a third space were analyzed to explore how discourse choices shaped the participants\u27 practices. We found that the participants both resisted and reproduced the traditional classroom in their talk, suggesting that the successful design of third spaces is a complex endeavor