Chapter 12: Postcoloniality and Learning Disability in Kuwait: Cycle or Downward Spiral?

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the role of (post/neo)coloniality in the development of the field of learning disabilities in Kuwait. We draw heavily on data from a qualitative study on local/sociocultural knowledge and universalistic models in the field of learning disabilities in Kuwait, which provides a description of the current interpretation of the imported model from the point of view of local educators, in this case, teacher assistants. Through focus group and in-depth, conversational interviews, the teacher assistants described how the school’s practices relied almost entirely on such features as dependence on imported resources, dominance of the deficit-based model, and exclusion of local/sociocultural knowledge. Juxtaposing these features with the local history of development of the field of learning disabilities, the social, cultural, and political context, and personal experience, a pattern seems to form, taking the shape of a cycle. We argue that this cycle transformed what was regarded as a “difficulty” into a “disability.” Second, we explain how, as the cycle went through several of its iterations, it “handicapped” teacher assistants/local educators in their own society. In the long term, one consequence that can be foreseen is the total erosion of the Arabic language and the loss of the local culture. We conclude that the prevailing pattern in the field of learning disabilities in Kuwait is not just a cycle, rather a downward spiral.