How A Humanizing Pedagogy Effects the Social/Emotional Needs of Students with ADHD

A quantitative study was conducted at a Monterey High School using a twelve question, cross-sectional survey using a likert scale to determine whether a relationship exists between teacher attitudes involving students with ADHD and their knowledge about the disorder. This study indicates teachers who have a negative experience hold negative attitudes, while teachers who have had positive experiences with students with ADHD had positive attitudes regarding the disorder. Thus, this capstone argues for an attitudinal and pedagogical shift in how teachers see ADHD and how they care about students, as their obligations as teachers to teach the whole child. Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder are increasingly being integrated into general education classes. However, because mainstream teachers often hold negative attitudes about students with ADHD, teachers are not always accommodating of students’ needs. Disability Studies research considers how profiling educationally marginalized students based on a perceived difference have allowed teachers to recognize disabled students as deficient, lacking self control and social behaviors and inferior (Collins, 2003). This shift, wherein teachers address their own negative attitudes towards students with ADHD, fosters teachers’ greater acceptance of students with ADHD. Therefore, this capstone focuses on the importance of teachers embracing an ethic of care within a humanizing pedagogy (Noddings, 2013, Bartolome, 1994). Caring respects the perspectives, language and knowledge of the students and helps to frame a humanizing experience for students who are traditionally dehumanized, (Bartolome, 1994). This approach can enable teachers to more fully support an ADHD child in constructing a positive sense of self, which, in turn, fosters a child’s ability to succeed in school and in their lives