Circular reasoning in diagnostic practices: a case study of how educational psychologists evaluate special needs.

The article reports a study of how Educational Psychologists (EPs) categorise the special needs of children in school, and the implications this work has for the decisions taken. In many countries, psychiatric categories play a key role in the school context, and they are often directly linked to the provision of support. However, in the Scandinavian welfare system, decisions on placement in special education should be taken on the basis of a professional assessment – no matter if the child has a diagnosis or not. The analyses of authentic reports by EPs show that in spite of this ideal, psychiatric categories play a central role, as they are often used as a point of departure for the professional assessment and the remedies suggested. It is noted as an important result that little or no attention is paid to the learning environment, even when the environment is explicitly recognised by the EPs as playing an important role in the challenges that students encounter. Continuing the long tradition of locating the problems inside the child has the unfortunate side-effect that it provides little incentive for schools to modify their instructional practices in contexts characterised by diversity in children’s backgrounds and abilities to participate.