Abstract
This paper discusses the meritocratic interpretation of school failure and maps its emergence in the discourse of participants in a university extension program that serves children with school complaints. The social dimension of the discourse about learning difficulties is explored by comparing how this resonates in the significant narratives of children and adults. A total of 128 registration forms recorded their reason for the demand of a clinical care and were subsequently analyzed. Based on a qualitative/quantitative (non-statistical) analysis of discursive expression, this paper reflects on the co-construction of meanings present in school complaints. The results show that, unlike children’s motives, the causal discourse of adults tends to be individualizing, which is expressed in the child’s accountability for “not learning” being justified, predominantly, by problems of concentration and attention. These data are consistent with the current fragmented logic stemming from the growing phenomenon of childhood medicalization that shifts the school conflict to the mental health field.
Keywords:
School Failure; Meritocracy; School Complaint