A Blueprint for an Educational Trajectory: The Power of Discourse in Constructing “Naughty” and “Adorable” Kindergarten Students
Discursive practices enacted by educators in
kindergarten create a blueprint for how the educational trajectories of
students with disabilities are constructed. This two-year ethnographic
case study critically examines educators’ relationships with students
considered to present challenging behaviors in one kindergarten
classroom located in a predominantly White middle class school
district in the Northeast of the United States. Focusing on the
language and practices used by one special education teacher and
three teaching assistants, this paper analyzes how teacher responses
to students’ behaviors constructs and positions students over one year
of kindergarten education. Using a critical discourse analysis it shows
that educators understand students’ behaviors as deficit and needing
consequences. This study highlights how educators’ responses reflect
students' individual characteristics including family background,
socioeconomics and ability status. This paper offers in depth analysis
of two students’ stories, which evidenced that the language used by
educators amplifies the social positioning of students within the
classroom and creates a foundation for who they are constructed to
be. Through exploring routine language and practices, this paper
demonstrates that educators outlined a blueprint of kindergartners,
which positioned students as learners in ways that became the ground
for either a limited or a promising educational pathway for them.
[1] National Disability Rights Network. Schools are not Supposed to Hurt:
Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools,
2009, Available at: http://www.ndrn.org/en/media/publications.html.
[2] United States Government Accountability Office. (2009). Seclusions and
Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private
Schools and Treatment Centers, 2009, Available at:
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-719T.
[3] S. Danforth, Compliance as Alienated Labor: A Critical Analysis of
Public School Programs for Students Considered to Have
Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, in Disability Studies in Education:
Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed.), New York, NY: Peter
Lang, 2009, pp. 85-102.
[4] N. Erevelles, Rewriting Critical Pedagogy from the Periphery:
Materiality, Disability and the Politics of Schooling, in Disability
Studies in Education: Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed),
New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005, (pp. 65-83).
[5] L. Darling-Hammond, Standards, Accountability, and School Reform. In
Facing Accountability in Education: Democracy and Equity at Risk, C.
Sleeter (Ed.), New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2007, pp. 78-111.
[6] A. Kohn, Beyond Discipline: from Compliance to Community.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, 1996.
[7] B. Harry, & J. Klingner, Why are so many Minority Students in Special
Education? Understanding Race & Disability in Schools. New York,
NY: Teachers College Press, 2006.
[8] E. R. Meiners, Right to be Hostile: Schools, Prisons, and the Making of
Public Enemies. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007.
[9] T. M. Skrtic, Disability and Democracy: Reconstructing (Special
Education for Postmodernity). New York, NY: Teachers College Press,
1995.
[10] B. A. Ferri, & D. Connor, Reading Resistance: Discourse of Exclusion
in Desegregation & Inclusion Debate. New York, NY: Peter Lang,
2006.
[11] D. J. Gallagher, The Natural Hierarchy Undone: Disability Studies’
Contributions to Contemporary Debates in Education, in (Eds.), Vital
Questions Facing Disability Studies in Education, Danforth, S. & Gabel,
S. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2008, pp. 63-75.
[12] S. Taylor, before it had a name, in Vital Questions Facing Disability
Studies in Education, S. Danforth, & S. Gabel. New York, NY: Peter
Lang, 2008.
[13] L. Ware, Many Possible Futures, Many Different Directions: Merging
Critical Special Education and Disability Studies, in Disability Studies in
Education: Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed.), New York,
NY: Peter Lang, 2009, pp. 103-124.
[14] B. Davies, & R. Harré, Positioning: The Discursive Production Selves.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, vol 20, no.1, pp. 43-63,
1990.
[15] S. Wortham, from Good Student to Outcast: The Emergence of a
Classroom Identity. ETHOS, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 164-187, 2004.
[16] K. M. Collins, Ability Profiling and School Failure: One Child’s
Struggle to be Seen as Competent. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers, 2003.
[17] B. Hatt, Smartness as a Cultural Practice in Schools. American
Educational Research Journal, vol. 49, no., 3, pp. 438-460, 2012.
[18] R. C. Bogdan, & S. K. Biklen, S.K. Qualitative Research for Education:
An Introduction to Theories and Methods. New York, NY: Pearson,
2007.
[19] T. A. Schwandt, the SAGE Dictionary of Qualitative Inquiry (4th ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2007.
[20] L Philips, & M. Jorgensen, Discourse Analysis and Theory and Method.
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2002.
[21] N, Fairclough, Language and Power. New York, NY: Pearson
Education Limited, 2001.
[22] T. Van Dijk, Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and
Society, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 249-283, 1993.
[23] R. Wodak, & M. Meyer, Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda,
Theory and Methodology in Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, R.
Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Washington, DC: SAGE, pp. 1-33, 2009.
[24] J. P. Gee, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2011.
[25] J. P. Gee, Discourse Analysis: What Makes it Critical? in An
Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, R. Rogers
(Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 23-45.
[26] F. T. Orsati, Against the Standards: Analyzing Expectations and
Discourse of Educators Regarding Students with Disabilities in a
Kindergarten Classroom. Education Research International, 2014,
available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/325430.
[27] G. Sugai, Postmodernism and Emotional and Behavioral Disorders:
Distraction or Advancement? Behavioral Disorders, vol. 23, no. 3, pp.
171-177, 1998. [28] D. Mitchell, What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education:
Using Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies. New York, NY: Routledge,
2008.
[29] R. Casella, Zero Tolerance Policy in Schools: Rationale, Consequences,
and Alternatives. Teachers College Record, vol. 105, pp. 872–892, 2003.
[30] D. Youdell, Impossible Bodies, Impossible Selves: Exclusions and
Student Subjectivities. London, UK: Springer, 1996.
[31] S. Gabel, Introduction: Disability Studies in Education, in Disability
Studies in Education: Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed.),
New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2009, pp. 1-20.
[32] M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York,
NY: Vintage Books, 1977.
[33] G, Kress, Discourse Analysis and Education: A Multimodal Social
Semiotic Approach, in an Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in
Education, R. Rogers (Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 205-
226.
[34] S. Rowe, Discourse in Activity and Activity as Discourse. In An
Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, R. Rogers
(Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 227-241.
[35] A. H. Ferguson, Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black
Masculinity. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2004.
[36] K. E. Wohwend, Mapping Modes in Children’s Played and Design: An
Action-Oriented Approach to Critical Multimodal Social Semiotic
Approach. In R. Rogers (Ed.), an Introduction to Critical Discourse
Analysis in Education New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 242-266.
[37] M. Foucault, Power and Knowledge: Selected Interviews and other
Writings 1972-1977. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1980.
[38] P. Smith, Whatever Happened to Inclusion? The Place of Students with
Intellectual Disabilities in Education. New York, NY: Peter Lang
Publishing Inc, 2010.
[39] J-G, Kang, A teacher’s Deconstruction of Disability: A Discourse
Analysis. Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1, 2009. Available at:
http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/173/173
[40] B. Harry, J. K. Klingner, K. M. Sturges, & R. F. Moore, of Rocks and
Soft Places: Using Qualitative Methods to Investigate
Disproportionality, in Racial Inequity in Special Education Cambridge,
D. J. Losen & G. Orfield (Eds.), MA: Harvard Education Press, 2002,
pp. 71-92.
[41] J. Causton-Theoharis, The Golden Rule of Providing Support in
Inclusive Classrooms: Support Others as You would Wish to be
Supported. Teaching Exceptional Children, vol., 42, no. 2, pp. 36-43,
2009.
[42] T. J. Smith, S. Danforth, & S. Nice, Creating a Participatory Class
Community, in Engaging Troubling Students: A Constructivist
Approach, S. Danforth & T.J. Smith. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press, 2005, pp. 57-91.
[43] H. Lovett, Learning to Listen: Positive Approaches and People with
Difficult Behavior. Boston, MA: Paul Brooks Publishing Co, 1996.
[1] National Disability Rights Network. Schools are not Supposed to Hurt:
Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools,
2009, Available at: http://www.ndrn.org/en/media/publications.html.
[2] United States Government Accountability Office. (2009). Seclusions and
Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private
Schools and Treatment Centers, 2009, Available at:
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-719T.
[3] S. Danforth, Compliance as Alienated Labor: A Critical Analysis of
Public School Programs for Students Considered to Have
Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, in Disability Studies in Education:
Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed.), New York, NY: Peter
Lang, 2009, pp. 85-102.
[4] N. Erevelles, Rewriting Critical Pedagogy from the Periphery:
Materiality, Disability and the Politics of Schooling, in Disability
Studies in Education: Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed),
New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005, (pp. 65-83).
[5] L. Darling-Hammond, Standards, Accountability, and School Reform. In
Facing Accountability in Education: Democracy and Equity at Risk, C.
Sleeter (Ed.), New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2007, pp. 78-111.
[6] A. Kohn, Beyond Discipline: from Compliance to Community.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, 1996.
[7] B. Harry, & J. Klingner, Why are so many Minority Students in Special
Education? Understanding Race & Disability in Schools. New York,
NY: Teachers College Press, 2006.
[8] E. R. Meiners, Right to be Hostile: Schools, Prisons, and the Making of
Public Enemies. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007.
[9] T. M. Skrtic, Disability and Democracy: Reconstructing (Special
Education for Postmodernity). New York, NY: Teachers College Press,
1995.
[10] B. A. Ferri, & D. Connor, Reading Resistance: Discourse of Exclusion
in Desegregation & Inclusion Debate. New York, NY: Peter Lang,
2006.
[11] D. J. Gallagher, The Natural Hierarchy Undone: Disability Studies’
Contributions to Contemporary Debates in Education, in (Eds.), Vital
Questions Facing Disability Studies in Education, Danforth, S. & Gabel,
S. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2008, pp. 63-75.
[12] S. Taylor, before it had a name, in Vital Questions Facing Disability
Studies in Education, S. Danforth, & S. Gabel. New York, NY: Peter
Lang, 2008.
[13] L. Ware, Many Possible Futures, Many Different Directions: Merging
Critical Special Education and Disability Studies, in Disability Studies in
Education: Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed.), New York,
NY: Peter Lang, 2009, pp. 103-124.
[14] B. Davies, & R. Harré, Positioning: The Discursive Production Selves.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, vol 20, no.1, pp. 43-63,
1990.
[15] S. Wortham, from Good Student to Outcast: The Emergence of a
Classroom Identity. ETHOS, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 164-187, 2004.
[16] K. M. Collins, Ability Profiling and School Failure: One Child’s
Struggle to be Seen as Competent. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers, 2003.
[17] B. Hatt, Smartness as a Cultural Practice in Schools. American
Educational Research Journal, vol. 49, no., 3, pp. 438-460, 2012.
[18] R. C. Bogdan, & S. K. Biklen, S.K. Qualitative Research for Education:
An Introduction to Theories and Methods. New York, NY: Pearson,
2007.
[19] T. A. Schwandt, the SAGE Dictionary of Qualitative Inquiry (4th ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2007.
[20] L Philips, & M. Jorgensen, Discourse Analysis and Theory and Method.
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2002.
[21] N, Fairclough, Language and Power. New York, NY: Pearson
Education Limited, 2001.
[22] T. Van Dijk, Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and
Society, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 249-283, 1993.
[23] R. Wodak, & M. Meyer, Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda,
Theory and Methodology in Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, R.
Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Washington, DC: SAGE, pp. 1-33, 2009.
[24] J. P. Gee, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2011.
[25] J. P. Gee, Discourse Analysis: What Makes it Critical? in An
Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, R. Rogers
(Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 23-45.
[26] F. T. Orsati, Against the Standards: Analyzing Expectations and
Discourse of Educators Regarding Students with Disabilities in a
Kindergarten Classroom. Education Research International, 2014,
available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/325430.
[27] G. Sugai, Postmodernism and Emotional and Behavioral Disorders:
Distraction or Advancement? Behavioral Disorders, vol. 23, no. 3, pp.
171-177, 1998. [28] D. Mitchell, What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education:
Using Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies. New York, NY: Routledge,
2008.
[29] R. Casella, Zero Tolerance Policy in Schools: Rationale, Consequences,
and Alternatives. Teachers College Record, vol. 105, pp. 872–892, 2003.
[30] D. Youdell, Impossible Bodies, Impossible Selves: Exclusions and
Student Subjectivities. London, UK: Springer, 1996.
[31] S. Gabel, Introduction: Disability Studies in Education, in Disability
Studies in Education: Readings in Theory and Method, S. Gabel (Ed.),
New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2009, pp. 1-20.
[32] M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York,
NY: Vintage Books, 1977.
[33] G, Kress, Discourse Analysis and Education: A Multimodal Social
Semiotic Approach, in an Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in
Education, R. Rogers (Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 205-
226.
[34] S. Rowe, Discourse in Activity and Activity as Discourse. In An
Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, R. Rogers
(Ed.), New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 227-241.
[35] A. H. Ferguson, Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black
Masculinity. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2004.
[36] K. E. Wohwend, Mapping Modes in Children’s Played and Design: An
Action-Oriented Approach to Critical Multimodal Social Semiotic
Approach. In R. Rogers (Ed.), an Introduction to Critical Discourse
Analysis in Education New York, NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 242-266.
[37] M. Foucault, Power and Knowledge: Selected Interviews and other
Writings 1972-1977. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1980.
[38] P. Smith, Whatever Happened to Inclusion? The Place of Students with
Intellectual Disabilities in Education. New York, NY: Peter Lang
Publishing Inc, 2010.
[39] J-G, Kang, A teacher’s Deconstruction of Disability: A Discourse
Analysis. Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1, 2009. Available at:
http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/173/173
[40] B. Harry, J. K. Klingner, K. M. Sturges, & R. F. Moore, of Rocks and
Soft Places: Using Qualitative Methods to Investigate
Disproportionality, in Racial Inequity in Special Education Cambridge,
D. J. Losen & G. Orfield (Eds.), MA: Harvard Education Press, 2002,
pp. 71-92.
[41] J. Causton-Theoharis, The Golden Rule of Providing Support in
Inclusive Classrooms: Support Others as You would Wish to be
Supported. Teaching Exceptional Children, vol., 42, no. 2, pp. 36-43,
2009.
[42] T. J. Smith, S. Danforth, & S. Nice, Creating a Participatory Class
Community, in Engaging Troubling Students: A Constructivist
Approach, S. Danforth & T.J. Smith. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press, 2005, pp. 57-91.
[43] H. Lovett, Learning to Listen: Positive Approaches and People with
Difficult Behavior. Boston, MA: Paul Brooks Publishing Co, 1996.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:70737", author = "Fernanda T. Orsati and Julie Causton", title = "A Blueprint for an Educational Trajectory: The Power of Discourse in Constructing “Naughty” and “Adorable” Kindergarten Students", abstract = "Discursive practices enacted by educators in
kindergarten create a blueprint for how the educational trajectories of
students with disabilities are constructed. This two-year ethnographic
case study critically examines educators’ relationships with students
considered to present challenging behaviors in one kindergarten
classroom located in a predominantly White middle class school
district in the Northeast of the United States. Focusing on the
language and practices used by one special education teacher and
three teaching assistants, this paper analyzes how teacher responses
to students’ behaviors constructs and positions students over one year
of kindergarten education. Using a critical discourse analysis it shows
that educators understand students’ behaviors as deficit and needing
consequences. This study highlights how educators’ responses reflect
students' individual characteristics including family background,
socioeconomics and ability status. This paper offers in depth analysis
of two students’ stories, which evidenced that the language used by
educators amplifies the social positioning of students within the
classroom and creates a foundation for who they are constructed to
be. Through exploring routine language and practices, this paper
demonstrates that educators outlined a blueprint of kindergartners,
which positioned students as learners in ways that became the ground
for either a limited or a promising educational pathway for them.", keywords = "Behavior, early education, special education, critical
discourse analysis.", volume = "9", number = "9", pages = "3053-9", }
