Time, measure, dissonance. ADHD as a critical lens on the assessment cultures of the HEA system. Validity of inferences, constructirrelevant barriers and the construction of merit in Music Conservatoires

Validité delle inférences, barrières non pertinentes au construit et construction du mérite dans les Conservatoires de musique.

Abstract

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) serves as a critical lens through which to deconstruct the formative and evaluative architectures of Conservatoires (the AFAM system). Drawing upon inclusive special education and the international debate on adult neurodiversity (Barkley, 2015; Faraone et al., 2015; Kooij et al., 2019), this analysis examines the structural tensions between divergent attentional and executive profiles and the institutional temporalities of advanced musical training. Time, understood simultaneously as a formative resource, an implicit evaluative criterion, and a selective device, plays a decisive role: many of the difficulties experienced by students with ADHD reveal themselves as construct-irrelevant barriers that undermine the assessment rigour of evaluative inferences (Messick, 1995; Kane, 2006; AERA, APA, NCME, 2014). In this light, the focus shifts from clinical dimensions to those of educational design, highlighting how the neglect of executive dysfunction (Sonuga-Barke et al., 2008) can generate forms of hidden exclusion. Reasonable adjustments thus cease to be mere concessions and become epistemological conditions for equity, aligned with a capabilities-based approach (Nussbaum, 2011) necessary to ensure the integrity of merit certification. Far from being a marginal issue, ADHD prompts a profound rethinking of evaluative cultures and the paradigm of excellence within higher arts education.