Discourse analysis of child welfare cou...

Background: The lives of parents with intellectual disability is con-strained by intersecting discourses on ableism and ideal parenting.There is scant research that has explored the discursive conditionsembedded within child welfare court reports of parents with intellec-tual disability. The aim of this study is to explore how parents withintellectual disability are constructed and how this construction influ-ences decision making within child welfare courts.

Methods: The overall research project utilized mixed methods on pub-licly available court reports of parents with intellectual disability inQuebec, Canada. A three-level critical discourse analysis was per-formed on 15 child welfare court reports that met the inclusioncriteria.

Results: Different terms were used to describe the parents' intellec-tual disability, and the intellectual disability was primarily used to con-struct the unfit parent. Three intersecting discursive patterns emergedfrom the court reports: The deviant parent with intellectual disabilityvs. the capable alternate caregiver, Love is not enough for parentswith intellectual disability, and highly scrutinized yet voiceless in courtproceedings.

Conclusions: Critical documents, such as child welfare court reports,mirror the ways in which marginalized communities, such parents withintellectual disability, are regarded and treated in different facets ofsociety. Unveiling these hidden ideological assumptions can challengeand confront unequal power relations.