Postmodernism and Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Distraction or Advancement?

Abstract

Because students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) present significant academic and social behavior challenges for educators, solutions are likely to be incremental, slow, and expensive, and educational programming must be direct, effective, and efficient. The postmodern perspective offers a solution that emphasizes individual differences, particularity, irregularity, and divergence. In response to the postmodern perspective, this article offers two main considerations. First, we must increase, rather than decrease, our dependence on scientific data and theories to guide educational policies and research efforts. Second, we must assume responsibility for measuring and owning the impact of our actions and decisions on the lives of students with E/BD and their families and communities. The value of our empirical tradition, the need to continue this perspective, and the potential perils of assuming a postmodern perspective when educating students with E/BD are discussed.