This article takes readers along the pathway of language learning and disorders across childhood and adolescence, highlighting the complex relationship between early (preschool) language disorders and later (school age) learning disabilities. The discussion starts with a review of diagnostic labels widely used in schools and other professional…

This study re-frames learning disabilities (LD) through the emotion-laden talk of four Latina/o students with LD. The research questions included: 1) What are the emotion-laden talk of Latina/o students about being labeled with LD? 2) What are Latina/o students' emotion-laden talk of the idea of LD? I identified master narratives, the…

Changing demographics in schools around the world have raised questions about the nature and role of gifted education programs. An intense interest in the underrepresentation of students from low-income families and minority groups in gifted education programs has caused the field to re-examine both identification and services. In this article,…

Does using a foreign language result in forming different moral decisions than using our mother tongue? Two studies were conducted to investigate whether there is a relationship between foreign language effects (differences between native vs. foreign language conditions) and psychological distance. Study 1 tested four moral dilemmas adapted from…

Racial minority youth are disproportionally removed from their learning environment due to school discipline and placed in special education for emotional disturbance. These disparities continue to trouble families, educators, and policy makers, particularly within urban schools. Yet there is a paucity of research on how behavioral outcome…

Limited existing research examines how undergraduate students in the United States experience the process of being identified as deficient due to their academic performance. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of college students on academic probation who were labeled academically deficient. Students…

For decades, James M. Kauffman has been a reputable scholar in the field of special education. While his contributions to the field cannot be doubted, his ideas about special education have been somewhat controversial and even devastating to the education of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners with and without disabilities.…

Drawing on a model of ethnic-racial socialization (E-RS; Pinderhughes, 2013), this study examined hypothesized relations among parents' role variables (family ethnic identity and acknowledgment of cultural and racial differences), cultural socialization (CS) behaviors, and children's self-perceptions (ethnic self-label and feelings about…

In the DSM-5, "Asperger's Disorder" was incorporated into "Autistic Spectrum Disorder" (ASD). One key concern in this change has been that the ASD label will increase negative attitudes relative to the Asperger's label. To test this, we asked 465 American adults to read a vignette describing a child with autistic symptoms that…

The online classroom is perceived as being a non-threatening, unbiased, safe environment due to the lack of visual cues that normally trigger hidden attitudes and biases. However, it is possible that stereotypical student names often trigger implicit bias in instructors leading to group expectations that can often manifest in a variety of ways…

This article examines online discussions during a teacher education class for experienced teachers seeking licensure in teaching English learners. It seeks to understand experienced teachers' constructions of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Using discourse analysis to emphasize talk as situated and action-oriented, the…

Roberge defines the 1.5 Generation as "those who immigrate as young children and have life experiences that span two or more countries, cultures and languages" (2009, p. 4). In US and Canadian higher education, the term has gained considerable recognition, with the scope of the term broadening among some educators to include…

Informed by theorizing positioning and agency, this article presents a case study by examining a science teacher's positioning acts and her agency development in a middle school in New York City. An analysis of this teacher's teaching narratives reveals that when she positioned her emergent multilingual students as "whole people," who…

In this article, the authors relate the life of Chris through narrative snapshots. Chris asked the authors to tell her story. They decided that it could be used to provide an insight into the different ways people with labels are confronted with professional practices and rituals. Although Chris lived a "tough life," her story is full of…

Behind every student dealing with a mental health problem is a family trying to grasp what's happening to their child and struggling to do its best. This personal story shares the journey of a family as it confronts a child with Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorder and describes the many starts and stops and confusion of diagnosing and…