The Search for Understanding of Learning Disabilities: A Response to Kavale and Forness

Abstract

In Politics of Learning Disabilities (this issue) Kavale and Forness signal a crisis in the field of learning disabilities and sound a call to action. In their view, the field of learning disabilities is a critical juncture in its brief history because it is disproportionately under the influence of forces. While they recognize that the creation of learning disabilities occurred through the confluence of and forces, they now view A primary difficulty ... to be the imbalance between the and sides of LD with the scales heavily tipped in favor of the political (p. 245). This imbalance creates the untenable situation of policy decisions being guided by particular ideological and philosophical perspectives associated with positions at the expense of the logical and rational represented in decision making (p. 245). According to the authors, the validity claims in the field of learning disabilities are under serious threat from this imbalance. As the field has become increasingly balkanized through interest organizations that define the who and what of learning disabilities, the historical, classification of learning disabilities is besieged by ideological and philosophical disputes. The effect is a high level of politicized learning disabilities activities in the public sphere. In the face of this crisis, the authors call for a restoration of the scientific base in learning disabilities and of a better balance between politics and (p. 270). In undertaking this process of restoration, the authors hope to reposition science the rational leader in implementation efforts in the public domain through conceptualization of learning disabilities as a entity meeting real-world demands (p. 245). We applaud Kavale and Forness' conclusion that a dominant conceptual challenge in learning disabilities today is the restoration of right reason (p. 245) through an analysis of the field's and aspects. Like Kavale and Forness, we recognize that science and political/social philosophy intersect in the lives of individual students with learning disabilities in nstructional settings, and that the consideration of b th influences is the one most likely to lead to greater understanding. We also believe that the authors' admonition for careful analysis is correct.