Disability And Teaching

Reconceptualizing Disability in Education provides an essential critical exploration of problematic discourses, practices, and pedagogies that inform how disability is presently understood and responded to within the field of education. Luigi Iannacci interrogates and destabilizes ableist grand narratives that dominate every aspect of how disability is linguistically, bureaucratically, procedurally, and pedagogically configured within education. Ultimately, this book seeks to forward human rights for people with disabilities in educational contexts by clarifying and operationalizing inclusion so that it is not just a model necessitated by a hierarchy of legality, but rather a set of beliefs and practices based on critical analyses and a reconceptualization of current understandings and responses to disability that prevent inclusion and human rights from being realized. As the book is grounded in reconceptualist theorizing, it draws on multiple perspectives—including critical disability theory, post-modernism, critical theory, critical pedagogy, and social constructivism—to deconstruct and destabilize what is currently taken for granted about disability and those ascribed disabled identities within education. A variety of personal, professional, research experiences and data are offered and drawn on to critically address questions regarding philosophical, epistemological, pedagogical, organizational, economic, and leadership issues as they relate to disability in education. Critical incidents, interviews, documents, and artifacts are drawn on and narratively presented to explore how disability is presently configured in language, identification, and placement processes, discourses, pedagogies, and interactions with students deemed disabled, as well as their parents/caregivers. This critical narrative approach fosters alternative ways of thinking, speaking, being, and doing that forward a human rights focused model of disability that sees as its mandate the amelioration of people with disabilities within education.

Disability and Teaching highlights issues of disability in K-12 schooling faced by teachers, who are increasingly accountable for the achievement of all students regardless of the labels assigned to them. It is designed to engage prospective and practicing teachers in examining their personal theories and beliefs about disability and education. Part I offers four case studies dealing with issues such as inclusion, over-representation in special education, teacher assumptions and biases, and the struggles of novice teachers. These cases illustrate the need to understand disability and teaching within the contexts of school, community, and the broader society and in relation to other contemporary issues facing teachers. Each is followed by space for readers to write their own reactions and reflections, educators’ dialogue about the case, space for readers’ reactions to the educators’ dialogue, a summary, and additional questions. Part II presents public arguments representing different views about the topic: conservative, liberal-progressive, and disability centered. Part III situates the authors’ personal views within the growing field of Disability Studies in education and provides exercises for further reflection and a list of resources. Disability and Teaching is the 8th volume in the Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling Series, edited by Daniel P. Liston and Kenneth M. Zeichner. This series of small, accessible, interactive texts introduces the notion of teacher reflection and develops it in relation to the social conditions of schooling. Each text focuses on a specific issue or content area in relation to teaching and follows the same format. Books in this series are appropriate for teacher education courses across the curriculum.

Disability and Teaching highlights issues of disability in K-12 schooling faced by teachers, who are increasingly accountable for the achievement of all students regardless of the labels assigned to them. It is designed to engage prospective and practicing teachers in examining their personal theories and beliefs about disability and education. Part I offers four case studies dealing with issues such as inclusion, over-representation in special education, teacher assumptions and biases, and the struggles of novice teachers. These cases illustrate the need to understand disability and teaching within the contexts of school, community, and the broader society and in relation to other contemporary issues facing teachers. Each is followed by space for readers to write their own reactions and reflections, educators’ dialogue about the case, space for readers’ reactions to the educators’ dialogue, a summary, and additional questions. Part II presents public arguments representing different views about the topic: conservative, liberal-progressive, and disability centered. Part III situates the authors’ personal views within the growing field of Disability Studies in education and provides exercises for further reflection and a list of resources. Disability and Teaching is the 8th volume in the Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling Series, edited by Daniel P. Liston and Kenneth M. Zeichner. This series of small, accessible, interactive texts introduces the notion of teacher reflection and develops it in relation to the social conditions of schooling. Each text focuses on a specific issue or content area in relation to teaching and follows the same format. Books in this series are appropriate for teacher education courses across the curriculum.

"I wish I had this book when I started teaching! Every teacher starts out with an empty bag of tricks; it is nice to peek into someone′s bag!" —Nicole Guyon, Special Education Teacher Westerly School Department, Cranston, RI Classroom-tested strategies that help students with learning disabilities succeed! Teachers are often challenged to help students with learning disabilities reach their full academic potential. Written with humor and empathy, this engaging book offers a straightforward approach to skillful teaching of students with learning disabilities. Developed for K–12 general and special education classrooms, this resource draws on the author′s 30 years of teaching experience to help teachers gain a greater understanding of students′ learning differences and meet individual needs. Strategies are organized by skills—including reading, writing, math, organization, attention, and test-taking—helping teachers quickly identify the best techniques for assisting each student and encouraging independent learning. Readers will find: More than 100 practical strategies, interventions, and activities that build students′ academic abilities Recommendations on appropriate accommodations, assessment techniques, and family communication Support for complying with recent federal mandates related to learning disabilities, including the ADA, Section 504, and the reauthorization of IDEA 2004 Helpful guidance and stories from the author′s own classroom experiences Ready-to-use tools, forms, and guides Discover innovative, easy-to-implement teaching methods that overcome barriers to learning and help students with special needs thrive in your classroom.

Many people who work in education start out with enthusiastic ideals about education as a positive force that can spur change in the life of the learner and in society at large, yet find themselves frustrated with a bureaucratic system that often alienates and excludes many of its students. This is particularly true for students identified as having "special educational needs" (SEN) or disability, a label often used to justify the ways in which students are failed by a system that focuses on narrow definitions of knowledge, seeks to normalise and control behaviour, and values economic productivity over other forms of human activity. Radical Inclusive Education explores how current educational practices, such as standardised tests and league tables, exclude and fail many disabled students, and naturalise educational inequalities around gender, class, ethnicity and ability. Informed by the social model of disability, the book argues that educational theories and practices that are geared towards social justice and inclusion need to recognise and value the diversity of human embodiments, needs and capacities, and foster pedagogical practices that support relations of interdependency. The book draws on work in disability studies, critical psychology and critical pedagogy, and also real life examples from interviews with activists in the disabled people’s movement, and from research in a school, to offer examples of what radical inclusive education – that is sensitive to the needs of all students – might look like in practice. As such, it will be of great interest to practitioners and students in the field of education, particularly for those interested in SEN and disability, sociology of education, critical pedagogy, informal education and social movement learning.

This book takes a nonpathological approach to disability, viewing it as part of diversity rather than as deficit. The opening chapters introduce basic knowledge of teaching in disability communities, covering attitudes and behaviors that may be difficult for instructors to relate to. Next, the book delves into the three activities sections that increase in difficulty over the course of the book. The activities highlight barriers and psychosocial impediments that hamper progress in disability communities. Designed by an expert educator and clinician who is also an insider in the disability community, each of the 34 activities translate well in classroom environments or as homework, and each can be done individually or in group settings. All activities include a list of required materials, time expectation, goal setting criteria, possible outcomes, and talking and debriefing points for reflection, thereby facilitating effective planning and execution. The activities also recommend possible modifications to adjust the difficulty of the activities. This flexibility makes this a valuable resource for a wider audience of expertise and settings, ranging from introductory to sophisticated readers and users, students and non-students, in classrooms, in workshops, or in other surroundings. Lastly, the book concludes with a chapter on accessing outcomes, with six measures for evaluating knowledge and skill. Teaching Disability is a well-rounded, highly applicable tool for instructors and students in the disability community.

This book is about the meaning of disability in schools. The experience of children with disabilities in schools has undergone substantial change over the last twenty years (and more) with many children who would have once been living in institutions now going to school alongside their peers. With this monumental shift and the continuing increased participation of people with disabilities, one might wonder what disability means.

"For years the text of choice for developing excellence as a teacher of K-12 students with moderate and severe disabilities, this clearly written work has now been revised and updated. Chapters provide step-by-step procedures for designing standards-based individualized education plans and evaluating and enhancing student progress. Methods and materials for teaching literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies are described in depth. The book also describes effective ways to build functional daily living skills. User-friendly features include extensive vignettes and classroom examples, end-of-chapter application exercises, and reproducible planning and assessment tools. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Subject Areas/Key words: special education, children, adolescents, special-needs learners, disabled, moderately, severely, developmental disorders, academic interventions, academic skills, life skills, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, inclusion classrooms, systematic instruction, special educators, teachers, literacy, reading, mathematics, textbooks, texts Audience: Students in special education and school psychology; K-12 special educators, school psychologists, reading specialists, classroom teachers, and administrators"--