Countering the paradox of twice exceptional students: Counter-narratives of parenting children with both high ability and disability

Abstract

In this chapter we reveal three counter-narratives emerging from interviews with 11 parents of eight twice-exceptional children about their children’s diagnoses, contested medical and educational support, and the prevalence of unconventional educational journeys in their lifeworlds. The parental counter-narratives privilege the lived experiences of the parents and their children, demonstrating that stigma and marginalization as dominant narratives do not constitute the entirety of the complexity of lived experiences for these children and their parents. The parental counter-narratives are: 1) Diagnosis and identification counter-narrative; 2) Resiliency counter-narrative; and, 3) Parental agency counter-narrative. These demonstrate that societies continue, in many respects, to show limited understandings of both giftedness and disability, and even greater misunderstanding about the enigmatic combination of these two particularities in a child. The current study contributes to the field by presenting unique perspectives in the form of counter-narratives of parental agency, demonstrating contested and altered roles and identities assigned to them and their children by societies through the continued medicalization of disability and norming of giftedness prevalent in their encountering of dominant narratives in educative practices.