‘To start talking phonics is crazy’: how parents understand ‘literacy’ in the lives of children with learning disabilities

ABSTRACT Children and young people with learning disabilities may not acquire the independent reading and writing skills which are conflated with ‘literacy’ in international educational policy, calling into question what ‘literacy’ means in the context of ‘special education’. Existing literature explores teacher perspectives, but less is known about parent views. This study conducts semi-structured interviews with two mothers of learning disabled children, drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis to trace inflections of policy, theory and practice-based discourses in their talk as they attempt to construct a meaningful version of ‘literacy’ in their children’s lives. It is argued that parents may align either with conventional discourses of autonomous literacy currently favoured in policy – which may result in disappointment at the child’s ‘inability’ – or with more expansive notions of ‘inclusive literacy’ which challenge and subvert conventional understandings of literate practice. Parental positioning, subjectivity and practice are interwoven with underpinning discursive constructions of ‘literacy’.