Using Student Voice to Escape the Spider’s Web: A Methodological
Approach to De-victimizing Students with ADHD
by
Kate Carr-Fanning, Conor Mc Guckin, & Michael Shevlin
Abstract
After innumerable hours and weeks spent adrift on the ocean of Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) literature, searching for answers among the biological and
behavioural social sciences, an infuriating amount of questions with no answers remained.
Far from scientific experts and their de-contextualized truth claims, the voice of one young
man, plucked us from their spider’s web. When posed the question “what’s life with ADHD
like?” he responded in kind, asking, “how does an elephant tell a mouse what it’s like to be
an elephant?” Apparently an “insider” experiences barriers, just like an “outsider”, each
seeking a way out and in. One can recognize the privileged nature of experiential knowledge
(Beresford, 2003), and still appreciate that developmentally generative social interactions
depend upon shared systems of meaning (Gergen, 1994). Realising “scientisms” (Thomas,
2009) inability to explicate either began the construction of the student voice methodology
delineated in this paper.
Student voice (i.e., voice) poses significant challenges and
transformative potentials (Bragg, 2007); it is further problematized, and necessary, when it
involves students with ADHD. Voice is inherently about power and knowledge (Thomas,
2011). As such, the social meaning of ADHD (Singh, 2012) must be considered to avoid revictimizing the voices of students with ADHD (i.e., ADHD voice) or reproducing
conventional knowledge (Fielding, 2004). This paper provides a pertinent analysis of voice
methodology, and the limitations in prior ADHD voice research. The theoretical framework
for the current study will also be explained, that is, the construction of a “counter-discourse”
to engage in meaningful dialogue (Taylor & Robinson, 2009).
Introduction
This paper examines the methodology for exploratory ADHD voice research. At the outset,
an explanation of what we have termed the metaphorical “spider’s web” is necessary;
because it is fundamental, not only to the paper, but also the construction of the research
methodology.
Ultimately, voice is about power and knowledge (Thomas, 2011); but there are many
ways of knowing, or systems of meaning (Sexton, 1997); just as there are many ways of
listening to the diverse array of voices which exist across and within students (Cook-Sather,
2006). The metaphor of the spider’s web was introduced in the lyrics of Ralph Mc Tell’s
song, “Michael in the Garden”; which illustrates the existence and consequences of divergent
frameworks for meaning:
Out in the garden . . . Michael is crying. Caught in a spider’s web, its broken
wings beating, a butterfly dying. And they in their wisdom say ‘Michael’s
got something wrong, wrong, wrong with his mind’. Well they must be
blind, if they can’t see what Michael sees . . . Michael where are you?
Michael where are we, We who see that there’s something wrong with your
mind . . . Oh Michael sees all Behind the high walls Surrounding his
kingdom, Whilst we in our wisdom Still trapped in the spider’s web Far
from the flow and ebb Of life in the garden . . . But Michael has pardoned
Us for he sees That really he’s free And there’s nothing to mend For his
wings are not broken.
Evidently, Mc Tell realized the multiplicity in meaning-making, and advocated a recognition
and respect for the diversity in voice. Thereby, raising the question of “whose truth” is
prioritized, enforced, and sustained by the taken for granted “realities” (Gergen, 2002). More
importantly, however, this song illustrates the potential danger of speaking “about” and “for”
others, especially in assumptions of competency (Alcoff, 1992). This is evident in Mc Tell’s
depiction of the effects of the spider’s web on those constructed and are constricted by it. Yet
there is also appreciation for Michael’s ability to live embedded within but also beyond its
confines, which represents the transformative potential of voice.
A student’s perception of lived experiences will be based on the “meaning” which
events have to them (Mackay, 2003). Student-centric meaning is individualized (Rogers,
1951). Thus, voice provides adult outsiders with alternative perspectives on taken for granted
social structures (Rudduck & Flutter, 2003). However, inasmuch as personal constructs
determine perception, research methods shape what is (and can be) discovered in research
(Crotty, 1998). Thus, Michael is also potentially vulnerable to becoming tangled in the web
and his wings broken.
The existence and impact of systems of meaning requires
methodology to critically analyse constructs used in research and practice.
Therefore,
methodology drew on theory from Social Constructionism (SC) and Constructivist
Psychology (CP), which like structure and agency are inextricable (Paris & Epting, 2004).
Consultation with students requires abandoning conventional knowledge (Cook,
2011). Nowhere is this more necessary than with ADHD voice, because the meaning of
ADHD in research and life has the potential to re-victimize students labelled as such (Singh,
2012). Labels are socio-political (Thomas & Loxley, 2005), pathologizing (Maddux, 2011),
stigmatising (Singh, 2012), and ambiguous (Clough et al., 2005) constructs; this is the
metaphorical spider’s web, so-called because they ensnare the minds of people and groups,
constricting their thoughts and practises (Lock & Strong, 2010). This paper may critique the
ADHD-label specifically, but all categorical practices are subject to similar reproach, indeed,
the spider’s web impacts (to varying degrees) all inclusive practices.
Despite the consequences of the spider’s web, especially for those who do not “fit in”
with its established version of reality (Thomas & Loxley, 2005), one cannot escape webs,
because meaning is required for interaction (Gergen, 2002). Evidently, voice is conceptually
and methodologically challenging, and there is a lack of theoretical knowledge (Taylor &
Robinson, 2009) and information regarding “how” to achieve “authentic” and “meaningful”
(Rudduck & Flutter, 2006) “consultation” (Taylor & Robinson, 2007) “with” students (Rose
& Shevlin, 2008). Notwithstanding obstacles, voice holds transformative potential (Bragg,
2007). Consequently, a methodological approach requires the construction of a neutral space,
wherein the student and researcher can engage in collaborative dialogue, beyond the effects
of the spider’s web (Taylor & Robinson, 2007).
CP supports this, because it studies how people and groups construct systems of
meaning and their consequences (Raskin, 2002). As addressed subsequently, a space of
neutral meaning can be provided by Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Transactional Model of
Stress and Coping (TMSC). The study of stress and coping de-victimizes ADHD voice, by
exploring their embodied experiences of oppression (Reeves, 2012); and studying “needs”,
free from the framing effects of “labels” (Aldwin, 2009). Another transactional model,
Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) Bio-ecological Model (BEM), contextualises students’ psychoemotional experiences of barriers (problems) and facilitators (solutions) to participation;
thereby, contributing to psychological knowledge for inclusion (Hick, Kershner, & Farrell,
2009).
People and groups are engaged in constructing, and then being constricted, by the
metaphorical spider’s web. There are significant and long lasting consequences for students
who do not fit-in with normative rules for development and behaviour. However, voice can
be used as a tool to escape and reconstruct its effects. Therefore, the problematic nature and
limited theoretical knowledge regarding voice, does not outweigh its transformative potential.
Using a combination of transactional models a theoretical framework can create a counterdiscourse to engage in meaningful dialogue, in order to reconstruct knowledge and practice,
and move beyond the spider’s web towards a transformative agenda (Freiler, 2003). First,
however, current knowledge and practices require consideration.
Reconstructing Inclusion
According to SC, knowledge (i.e., meaning) is never “discovered” (Crotty, 1998), it is coconstructed transactionally between active-agents and their socio-environmental contexts
across time (Lock & Strong, 2010). This section considers how voice and CP can contribute
to a “reconstruction”, rather than a “deconstruction”, of inclusive knowledge and practice
(Raskin, 2002).
Inclusion Agenda
Voice’s concern with power and knowledge adopts a similar stance on the social structures
inclusionist ideology also disavows (Finkelstien, 2001).
However, voice is further
complicated by emancipatory agendas (Corbett, 1998). Thus, we must begin by locating the
thesis within the broader inclusive, constructivist, and transactional paradigms.
Modernity ascribes to inclusion, which includes ideology (Finkelstien, 2001),
legislation (e.g., Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, 2004), and
implications for practice (e.g., National Council for Special Education: NCSE, 2005); these
numerous interpretations evidence that meaning is not absolute or universal (Sharry, 2004).
Indeed, inclusion recognized the consequences of social perception, and deliberately
attempted to reconstruct structural influence on agency, by shifting focus from oppression to
emancipation (Shakespeare & Watson, 2002). Nevertheless, causal reductionism, whereby
disability is caused by social structures (i.e., barriers to participation) or with-in student
deficits cannot explicate social phenomenon; because structure and agency are fundamentally
and existentially related (Paris & Epting, 2004).
Inclusionist orientation champions transactionalism’s “goodness-of-fit” hypothesis,
whereby, Special Educational Needs (SEN) arise from a mismatch between the person’s
capabilities, and the opportunities and demands present in the environment (i.e., P-E fit).
This approach is embodied in the BEM (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) adopted by the National
Children’s Strategy (NCS, 2000); and considered best-practice for inclusive education
(NCSE, 2006), including Emotional Disturbance and/or Behavioural Disorders (EBD), which
ADHD is subsumed under (Special Education Support Services: SESS, 2009).
Clearly, inclusion appreciates the consequences of meaning on how people and
groups respond to differences; and advocates a reconstruction of such influences.
Nevertheless, one cannot focus on external social structures alone; it is the P-E fit which
causes SEN. Interactions require systems of meaning, and so these must be considered.
Whose Label is This?
Beginning with an exploration of the constructivist stance adopted, this section introduces
concepts central to the theoretical framework considered subsequently. Critical examination
of systems of meaning and the spider’s web is necessary, because understanding “the
problem” requires an appreciation of the whole situation and forces distributed therein
(Lewin, 1935). All interactions depend upon meaning, thus, their impact in research and
practice requires consideration. This critique advocates the reconstructing the meaning of
ADHD, referred to herein as moving beyond the spider’s web.
Constructing Meaning
As meaning is a powerful inevitability, considering the boundaries of meaning, such as those
involved in inclusion, suggests a reconstruction of the spider’s web may be preferable to its
deconstruction.
Research cannot study objective reality, neither can it investigate structure
independent of agency. Consequently, research must consider the relational structures
involved in interaction (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). Constructed to facilitate interaction, systems
of meaning become the most fundamental situational forces (Mackay, 2003; Raskin &
Bridges, 2004); because:
“. . . frames (ways of seeing or defining situations) and the labels
attached to them dictate (to a greater or lesser extent) what we can see
and do . . .” (de Shazer, 1985, p. 40).
Meaning construct perception and experience, and is used to guide action (Sharry, 2004), and
people’s behavior tends to conform to their beliefs (Bandura, 1977). Thus, in the oft cited
words of Thomas and Thomas (1928), “If men define situations as real, they are real in their
consequences.” (p. 571-572). Evidently, the impact of the spider’s web on perception and
response is considerable.
Labels are not inherently “true”, nor are they “bad”, they only have utility relative to
practice (Raskin, 2002).
Watts (1951) illustrated this conundrum, when he posed the
question as to whether rabbits should be classified by fur or meat. As both systems are be
true, the choice would differ for furriers and butchers, because one would be more useful, and
utility depends upon goals. Inclusion’s goal is to shift attention to values and commitments
to social justice (Norwich, 2007).
Therefore, bio-medical labels are criticized from
individualized approach to “curing” the “broken” student, and neglecting the environment
(Griffin & Shevlin, 2007). Inasmuch as inclusionist research agendas are subject to similar
reproach for its sociological focus on external oppression (Watermeyer, 2012). Meaning can
be oppressive or emancipatory (Freire, 1997), however, it is also involved in participation,
and belonging (Nussbaum, 2007). Thus, truth may not exist without power (Foucault, 1994),
but neither does meaning or interaction (Gergen, 2002). Hence, SC is about more than
emancipation from oppression (Haslam & Reicherm, 2012), it is inherent in the re-framing of
problems and solutions (Gingerich & Wabeke, 2001) and/or multi-voice perspective
(Thomas, 2011); because power exists is various dynamic and reciprocal forms in all
interactions (Engestrom, 2003).
Evidently, labels are not the problem, because meaning is required for interaction, and
labels assume power as given. Therefore, the uncritical reliance upon inappropriate labels
prevents inclusion. A critical evaluation of the spider’s web, illustrates the problems inherent
using bio-medical labels in inclusive practice.
The Spider’s Web
From a CP perspective, the ADHD-label must be evaluated based on its utility for achieving
inclusive goals; and understood in terms of meaning, perception, and experience. This
critique is concerned with analysing the ADHD-label’s viability for inclusive practices.
Despite being the most common (Polancsyk et al., 2007) and well researched
condition (Taylor, 2009), knowledge of ADHD is predominantly based on bio-medical
evidence, discovered in clinical research (NICE, 2009), using behavioural descriptions (e.g.,
hyperactive), which lack ecological validity (Armstrong, Galloway, & Tomlinson, 1993).
Therefore, ADHD is a bio-medical label and explanation (Taylor, 2009) for a biopsychosocial condition (Cooper, 1997). Medicalization is problematic when it is applied
outside clinical settings (Hyman, 2010; Shah & Mountain, 2007). It is perhaps unsurprising
then that ADHD knowledge in practice is inaccurate (Furnham & Sawar, 2010), stigmatizing
(Singh, 2012), and contested (Hinshaw et al., 2011). Hence, psychosocial research is needed,
which must consider the transactions between the perceived (subjective) and actual
(objective) environment (Jessor, 1991). As such, the dearth of qualitative research (NICE,
2009), especially in the context of these students daily lives (Gallican & Curle, 2008) must be
addressed.
In school, students with ADHD are given a second, notoriously problematic, EBDlabel, so educators know what SEN to expect (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002). Lacking any
utility for teachers and students, the EBD-label may hinder more than help (Clough et al.,
2005). No other student group is perceived as negatively or excluded more readily (Cooper,
2011). Apparently, the only benefit is for administration (Norwich, 2008). Therefore, the
EBD-label is not a viable means to inclustionist goals. However, contrary to debate (e.g.,
Norwich, 2008) there is no dilemma about “if” people should recognize difference.
Recognition is inevitable, people and groups will always construct stories to cope with
difference (Furnham, 1998). The meaning, however, is and has been subject to change
(Griffin & Shevlin, 2007).
The proposed deconstruction of medical (i.e., spider’s web) knowledge, and a return
to teachers conventional wisdom (e.g., Thomas, 2009) is problematic; given that teachers
implicit beliefs (e.g., attitudes) are themselves barriers to participation (e.g., McDonnell,
2003).
Conversely, the issue is non-recognition (hidden) and/or mis-recognition
(stereotyping), because without respect for diversity, students will be oppressed and
marginalized by systems of meaning (Lynch & Lodge, 2003). Indeed, the existence and/or
awareness of the ADHD-label is not required for stigma. Students in the US interpreted
ADHD-type behaviours as “crazy” or “stupid” (Law, Sinclair, & Fraser, 2007); and findings
suggest similar negativity in Ireland (O’Driscoll et al., 2010). Students with ADHD are
aware of these discriminatory attitudes (Singh, 2012), they often report feeling rejected and
misunderstood (e.g., Gallican & Curle, 2007), and describe themselves as “wacko” and
“different” (Kendall et al., 2003). However, the “normal” or “ADHD” student is not an
inherent truth, but a belief about oneself, socially constructed, communicated and reinforced
by social interaction (Rogers, 1951).
Social interactions can be developmentally generative (e.g., participation) or
dysfunctional (e.g., oppression: Bronfenbrenner, 2005). ADHD poses unique challenges to
different stakeholders, so they often have conflicting definitions of the problem and solution
(Kildea, Wright, & Davies, 2011).
In the absence of shared meaning, dysfunctional
interactions preventing inclusion (Huges, 2007) become “vicious cycles” (Gallichan & Curle,
2008). Indeed, perception is determined by personal beliefs and goals in the context of a
situation (Parks & Folkman, 1997). Consequently, inclusive practices must be based on
shared meaning (Freiler, 2003).
This critique of the metaphorical spider’s web illustrates the re-victimizing
consequences of current meaning associated with ADHD. Whether the label is ADHD, EBD,
wacko, or stupid, the meaning impacts stakeholders perceive, experience, and respond to
events. One cannot study events in reality, and since a way of seeing is a way of not seeing,
the spider’s web prevents adult-outsiders seeing “what Michael sees”. Therefore, in the
reconstruction of the spider’s web, it is paramount for de-victimized ADHD voice be
explored.
Student Voice
The current re-victimizing meaning of ADHD has been informed by research conducted “on”
or “about” students (Rose & Shevlin, 2004). However, students with ADHD can (Singh,
2007) and should (Nations Conventions Rights of the Child, 1989) be consulted on matters
concerning them.
The question, therefore, it about “how” to elicit and interpret voice
(Robinson & Taylor, 2009). This section explores concepts of power and meaning, because
they represent voice’s methodological challenge and its transformational potential (Fielding
& Rudduck, 2002). The critique of prior ADHD voice research illustrates the re-victimizing
consequences of conventional knowledge in research.
De-victimized Consultation
The spider’s web traps students, teachers, and researchers in dysfunctional self-perpetuating
cycles. In order to escape from its confines adults must adjust how they “see” students and
interpret their voice (Bragg, 2007).
Student-centred concepts of inside-experts, appreciates they have a unique
relationship with their world, unimaginable to outsiders (Alcoff, 1992; Fielding, 2004;
Rogers, 1951).
Therefore, voice supports inclusive practices by proffering different
perspectives; it enables adults to re-frame how they perceive socio-environmental structures
(e.g., Flutter & Rudduck, 2003). More importantly, however, while students are embedded
within the spider’s web (Robinson & Taylor, 2009), they are not similarly subject to its
framing effects.
According to Wright and Lopez (2011), outsider’s perceptions are
predisposed toward other people’s abnormal / negative behaviours and labels, which obscures
the socio-environmental context. Whereas, life on the inside looking out provides a different
perceptual field entirely. The salient features are the socio-environmental structures which
make life better or worse. Hence, voice provides perspectives which are experiential,
culturally, and contextually bound. Thus, voice can be used to escape the spider’s web, and
reconstruct the meaning of ADHD.
A prerequisite to voice is critical reflection on conventional knowledge and
assumptions; because frames determine what voice is elicited and whose voice gets heard
(Hunleth, 2011). Student consultation refers to “formal involvement” (NCS, 2000), because
voice recognizes rights and competency (Thomas, 2008). Therefore, rather than antiquated,
oppressive, and paternalistic notions of incompetent and passive “becomings”, voice
advocates students-as-agentic “beings” (Bragg, 2007). Agents are “empowered” because
they are free from control (emancipated) and competent self-determiners (Adams, 2008). If
students are actively involved in research and meaning construction, one cannot “give” them
power/voice (Toynbee, 2009). However, people have access to different types of power
(Robbson & Taylor, 2009).
Indeed, disaffection (Hartas, 2011), challenging behaviour
(Munn & Lloyed, 2008), even silence (Lewis, 2010) are all ways of having power/voice.
One cannot give power, but relational structures can disempower and re-victimize
students (Arnot & Reay, 2007). Thus, voice can be used to re-enforce adult agendas
(Fielding, 2001) and social norms (Bragg, 2007). The student has multiple voices, and
ascertaining which is engaged in dialogue is prohibitive (Cook-Sather, 2006). Authentic
voice is “eclipsed” when the research does not consider student’s competency (Cook, 2011);
which is as critically as it is challenging (Hunleth, 2011). Competencies develop with age
(James, Jenks & Prout, 1998), educational opportunity, and/or psychobiology (Robinson &
Taylor, 2009). Conventional systems of meaning (e.g., language) and modes of interaction
(e.g., expectations), especially those from the adult world, must be dis-guarded; or risk
patronizing, restricting, and/or alienating voice (Christensen & James, 2000; Fielding, 2001,
2004).
However, in order to reconstruct the spider’s web, one must engage in dialogue
(Gergen, 1994). Dialogue requires shared meaning, however, what is personally “known”
about that meaning is privilaged (Komulainen, 2007).
Inevitably, equal partnership is more aspiration than objective (Fielding, 2004).
Nevertheless, power is inherent in any interaction, and even if students possessed the
monopoly on truth, adults would never fully grasp it (Punch, 2002). Insiders provide unique
insights but have “blind spots” (Osler, 2006); thus, they are essential and insufficient (Oliver,
2000). Ultimately, the goal is multi-voice, because it holds transformational potential (CookSather, 2006; Gergen, 1994). Hence, the student is viewed herein as an expert consultant,
and methodology sought meaningful dialogue (Cook, 2011).
The outcome of dialogue
cannot be “pure” student perspective, nor does it exist free from conventional meaning
(Komulainen, 2007).
However, in the co-constructing of knowledge for practice, it is
essential that dialogue occurs beyond the effects of the spider’s web (Clark & Moss, 2001;
James, 2007).
Re-victimizing ADHD Voice
Insanity, it is said, is doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result
(Brown, 1983). The madness of previous ADHD voice research, however, can be attributed
to the consequences of conventional social relations. Scientific and conventional knowledge
exist within social relations, and so researchers experience problems working within confines
(e.g., spider’s web) without being limited by (or reproduce) them (Harding, 1991). This
section demonstrates how uncritical reliance on labels, prevented researchers seeing students
as beings, living beyond the spider’s web; which re-victimized their voice.
The extremely limited (NICE, 2009) extant literature is not ADHD voice per-say.
The findings reviewed herein refer to qualitative research with young people, usually in
clinical settings (Gallican & Curle, 2007). Any frame (or method) has consequences for
research, but dialogue requires shared meaning.
Therefore, frames require evaluation,
because they can manipulate voice in its elicitation and/or interpretation (Fielding, 2004).
Despite the re-victimizing effects of the ADHD-label, explored above, all previous research
used the ADHD-frame during interactions (e.g., interviews). In the context of research, the
student’s interpretation of meaning constructs their voice (Hunleth, 2011). Using the spider’s
web as a frame, when students are malleable and open to suggestion, structured the
parameters and contents of dialogue (Porter & Lewis, 2005).
Consider the dominant findings, from the USA (e.g., Kruger & Kendall, 2003) and
UK (e.g., Cooper & Shea, 2006), which suggests the existence of an ADHD-identity.
Apparently, students cannot differentiate between their self-concept, challenging behaviour,
and the ADHD-label. An ADHD-identity would mean full internalization of the meaning of
ADHD. But the meaning of a disability is reported to be different for insiders (Wright &
Lopez, 2009). Findings suggest that the ADHD-label has limited (Dunne & Moore, 2011) or
non-existent (McIntyre & Hennessy, 2011) meaning, beyond that they have been identified as
broken or disordered (Wearmounth, 1999). During an interview, interaction depends on
meaning, which one cannot assume is shared (Komulainen, 2007), nor can the voice engaged
be ascertained (Cook-Sather, 2006). Therefore, investigating voice using the ADHD-frame,
could be eliciting information regarding perception and experiences of being labelled
disorders. However, it does not explore student’s needs, nor does it consider what works in
practice.
Students respond to the parameters set by the researcher, and the more re-victimizing
consequences of the ADHD-frame is apparent in a UK study by Kildea, Wright, and Davies
(2011). Research began within SC, but shifted paradigm mid-way, because the participants
all reported similar ADHD symptoms. Researchers concluded that this was proof of the
disorder’s material reality. Notwithstanding a biological basis to ADHD (Taylor, 2009), their
argument is fundamentally flawed. In order to support their conclusion, people with ADHD
must be able to accurately self-report shared symptomatology.
Conversley, ADHD is
associated with perceptual bias impeding self-reporting (e.g., Hoza et al., 2004), and
symptomology varies considerably across people (Taylor, 2009). A more unified construct is
the “ADHD student”. Therefore, using the spider’s web as the frame impacted what research
could (and did) discover. Consequently, the conclusions actually re-victimized students,
because they reproduced conventional knowledge of ADHD.
Evidently, power, meaning, and voice are a relational process; which holds
transformative or re-victimizing potentials.
Engaging voice/power requires systems of
meaning to be reconsidered, because assumptions and conventional knowledge impacts how
voice is elicited and interpreted. Previous ADHD voice research was limited by researchers’
inability to consider lived experiences beyond the spider’s web. Frames simultaneously
reveal and conceal, one cannot escape the spider’s web using it to structure dialogue. Thus,
ADHD voice became trapped voice within the spider’s web, and these students were revictimized once more. Consequently, methodology needed to construct a theoretical
framework supporting de-victimized consultation.
De-victimizing ADHD Voice
Voice is methodologically challenging, since experiential knowledge is paramount but
privileged, an outsider will never be an insider. ADHD voice, however, is considerably more
problematic, but the label’s re-victimizing effects also makes consultation more necessary.
The objective is the obstacle, because it is difficult to explore the experiences of students with
ADHD, without becoming tangled in the spider’s web. The theoretical framework, which
incorporated two transactional models, is explored in this section.
A neutral meaning
framework, or counter-discourse, was provided by exploring student’s perceptions and
experiences of stress and coping.
Contextualizing ADHD voice using a bio-ecological
perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 2005), facilitated the identification of problem (barriers) and
solutions (facilitators) to participation; thereby, contributing to a reconstruction of inclusive
knowledge and practice.
Stress: the space for voice
Methodology required conventional systems of meaning and power be critically evaluated.
However, theory is also cognizant that meaning is an inevitable necessity, simultaneously
concealing and revealing, it creates barriers for outsiders and insiders alike, trapping both
within the spider’s web. This section examine the space for voice provided by the TMSC
(Lazarus, 1991).
Undoubtedly, we are all more “. . . human than otherwise . . .” (Sullivan, 1953, p. 4),
and herein lies the key to inclusion and moving beyond the spider’s web. Everyone is
engaged in a continuous process of negotiation between their own capabilities and goals,
relative to environmental opportunities and demands (i.e., P-E). The study of stress and
coping explores this adaptational process. According to Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984)
TMSC, stress is experienced when a person “perceives” environmental demands as exceeding
personal resources. In inclusionist terminology, barriers to participation are experienced as
distress; because the problem is neither the square peg nor the round hole, it is the experience
of forcing the former into the latter (Reeves, 2012). The meaning-making process involves
cognition and emotion (Bronfenbrenner, 2005).
Emotions communicate the personal
significance of a P-E transaction (Lazarus, 1991, 2000).
Unfathomably, however, research has avoided the psycho-emotional experience of
disability. Instead, prioritizing reductivist and disempowering framework, on the external
structures of oppression (Watermeyer, 2012). However, meaning is relational, both structure
(social) and agency (personal) are involved (Paris & Epting, 2004). Exploring stress is
methodologically beneficially, because stress (the problem) is characterized by the P-E
relationship (Lazarus, 1991), but is social in origin (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). Therefore,
instead of targeting student-deficits, one considers the mismatch between demands and
resources (Aldwin, 2009). Consequently, the implied solution is a reconstruction of current
relational systems causing stress.
The study of stress in young people with ADHD (e.g., Gallican & Curle, 2008) and
other disorders (Davidson, 2010), has tended to use the label as the pre-identified stressor.
The re-victimizing effects of frames used in research was explored previously. Pursuant to
de-victimizing ADHD voice, the current research is exploratory; Bronfenbrenner (2005)
would say it is in the “discovery mode”. Psychosocial research is challenging, Winkle,
Saegert, and Evans (2009) advocate the insider self-identify the salient features within the PE interaction. Hence, no presuppositions were formed about student’s experiences of stress
and coping; save that all students experience stress, which arises from a mismatch between
resources and demands (Lazarus, 1991). Consequently, research adopted a counter-discourse
(Taylor & Robinson, 2009) or a different framework for listening (Clark & Moss, 2001).
Questions were free from adult-power-agent constructs and the spider’s web (Fielding, 2004),
but were still meaningful (Porter & Lewis, 2007) without assuming shared meaning
(Komulainen, 2007). There was space for voice, because stress is constructed in context
based on personal meaning and goals (Parks & Folkman, 1997).
Furthermore, coping responses are all cognitive and behavioural efforts to remove
distress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Thus, utility is determined by student’s goals, rather
than socially normative expectations for behaviour (Parks & Folkman, 1997). Moreover, an
understanding of personal-strengths (e.g., coping responses) and/or environmental solutions
(e.g., social resources) can contribute to inclusive knowledge of what works in practice
(Gingerich & Wabeke, 2001; Shah & Mountain, 2007). In order to contribute to knowledge
and practice, one must recognize the socio-environmental context wherein voice emerges and
is imbued with meaning (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). This is not antithetical to the TMSC,
because according to Lazarus (2000) the perception of stress is a functionally viable
interpretation of actual events. The limitation, however, is the model is psychological, and
does not provide a framework to explore the socio-environmental structures. However, a
psychosocial approach requires one to consider both the perceived and actual environment
(Jessor, 1991).
De-victimized ADHD voice required that students self-identify salient features within
P-E interactions. Therefore, the current research explores student’s perceptions of stress,
which emphasises needs free from the framing effects of the spider’s web. The study of
coping champions a re-framing of events in terms of strengths and solutions, and so
contributes to knowledge of what works in inclusive practice. Further to this, reconstructing
the spider’s web requires the contextualization of voice.
Voice-in-Context
The research methodology emphasised de-victimized ADHD voice. But in order to move
beyond theory and into practice, voice requires contextualization (James, 2007; Mc Guckin,
& Minton, in press); within what MacMahon, Pugh, and Ipsen (1960) appropriately termed
the “web of causation”. A social interaction includes multiple stakeholders and valid voices.
Rather than identifying and promoting one truth, inclusion requires the co-construction of
shared meaning. Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) BEM provides a model to explore voice within its
socio-environmental context.
The social ecology is conceptualized as an array of “nested” interconnected systems
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979). At its analytic-centre, is the active-agent interacting within the
“micro-system”, subject to forces at distal and proximal levels, within the ever widening
social systems (e.g., meso- and chrono-system). Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) conceptualization
of agency correlates to principles of voice (Bragg, 2007), and is experientially similar to
TMSC (Lazarus, 1991). Its methodological contribution is an empirical framework to study
P-E transactions. The experience of disablism is essential (Watermeyer, 2012), however,
human experience is an “emergent whole” (Tomisini, 2012), where objective and subjective
“emerge as partners” (Crotty, 1998).
According to Bronfenbrenner (2005), research needs to focus on “processes”, that is,
the tools for interaction between the P-E, which shape experience and behaviour. Using the
concept of “ecological niches”, research can evaluate processes and P-E fit across contexts.
This is facilitated by triangulating the voices of multiple stakeholders. In moving beyond the
spider’s web, one must recognize that meaning is necessary for interaction, and shared
meaning is fundamental to inclusion (Gergen, 2002). Therefore, voice should aspire to
relational structures which promote recognition and acceptance, and so, support participation
and belonging (Lynch & Lodge, 2002).
This review of the theoretical framework examined methodology’s constrution of
neutral space for ADHD voice. Investigating student’s perceptions and experiences of stress
and coping, engages voice in meaningful dialogue about problems and solutions to inclusion.
Further, ADHD voice is de-victimized, because needs are studied free from the effects of the
spider’s web. Nevertheless, the objective is not de-constructing the spider’s web, but rather
the reconstruction of current relational systems. Consequently, voice requires triangulation
and contextualization within the Irish social ecology.
This theoretical framework has
informed the research methods (e.g., data collection) for a multiple qualitative case study.
This approach appreciates the “boundedness” between structure and agency, and is oriented
towards solving problems in real world settings (Stake, 2005).
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