Learning with Learning Disability: What Learning Disability Can Teach Us About Being Human

— —

Owen Barden

Learning with Learning Disability

What Learning Disability Can Teach Us About Being Human

Owen Barden

$112

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Routledge
24 July 2025

Ethics & moral philosophy; Disability: social aspects; Sociology; Teaching of specific learning difficulties & needs; International human rights law

Series: Autocritical Disability Studies

This book uses the concept of “learning disability” to explore what it means to be human. It argues that we need to learn with rather than from or about learning disability. This crucial distinction means being open to what learning disability can teach us about what it means to be human. This approach comes from recognizing learning disability as an organizing concept - a concept which radically transforms our sense of what it means to be - or not be - a person.

After reflecting on the author’s relationship to learning disability, the book explores relationships and tensions between conceptualisations of learning disability and of the human. Through historical ontology, the book initially examines how the phenomenon of “learning disability” came into being. It then explores ways in which the concept of learning disability has, over the course of the 20th and 21st-Centuries, radically transformed our sense not only of education and learning, but also of who is or is not deemed entitled to full citizenship and the associated rights, and so who is or is not fully human.

Each chapter of the book exposes tensions and contradictions apparent in the ways we tend to think about personhood and learning disability, illuminating them through a series a binary oppositions: human and not fully human; menacing and vulnerable; controlled and abandoned; capable and incapable; human and posthuman.

The book concludes by drawing together these tensions and contradictions to challenge the prevailing metanarrative of disability and make the case for a more inclusive conceptualization of what it means to be human. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, the history of learning disability, humanism and posthumanism, and learning disability advocacy.

By: Owen Barden
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781032534138
ISBN 10: 1032534133
Series: Autocritical Disability Studies
Pages: 108
Publication Date: 24 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education , A / AS level
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1.Introduction. 2.Human and Not fully human. 3.Vulnerable and Menacing. 4.Controlled and Abandoned. 5.Human and Posthuman. 6.Conclusion.

Owen Barden is Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability and Inclusion at Trinity College Dublin. He has published extensively on learning disability, with particular interests in histories of learning disabilities and participatory methodologies.