How do high school students confront and resolve conflicting messages about their intelligence and academic potential, particularly when labelled with social and learning disabilities? How does disability become "disablement" when negative attitudes and disparaging perceptions of ability position students as outsiders? Following the lives of adolescents at home as well as in and out of school, the author makes visible the disabling language, contextual arrangements, and unconscious social practices that restrict learning regardless of special education services. She also showcases how young...

How do high school students confront and resolve conflicting messages about their intelligence and academic potential, particularly when labelled with social and learning disabilities? How does disability become "disablement" when negative attitudes and disparaging perceptions of ability position students as outsiders? Following the lives of adolescents at home as well as in and out of school, the author makes visible the disabling language, contextual arrangements, and unconscious social practices that restrict learning regardless of special education services. She also showcases how young...