Rethinking Professional Issues In Special Education

Special educators are facing new challenges at the beginning of the 21st century as public education is being reformed by a vision focusing on measurable student outcomes. The future course of the field will be shaped by the policy and programmatic responses to several issues, including demographic changes in student populations, a lack of certified special education teachers, criticism in the public media for the rising costs of services, and debates about the preferred philosophy of service delivery for students with disabilities. Additional chapters discuss university-school collaboration, charter schools, disability studies, school violence, disproportionality in placement, male African-American teachers, and ethics. This book has been written out of a context of research and program development activities with public schools over the past decade in one of the largest Colleges of Education in a diverse metropolitan area in the country. The issues selected for analysis and the perspective guiding those analyses grew out of this work and out of a national Delphi study of the views of parents and constituent organizations and leading researchers, teacher educators, and policy makers in Special Education.

Now in its second edition, Rethinking Disability introduces new and experienced teachers to ethical framings of disability and strategies for effectively teaching and including students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Grounded in a disability studies framework, this text’s unique narrative style encourages readers to examine their beliefs about disability and the influence of historical and cultural meanings of disability upon their work as teachers. The second edition offers clear and applicable suggestions for creating dynamic and inclusive classroom cultures, getting to know students, selecting appropriate instructional and assessment strategies, co-teaching, and promoting an inclusive school culture. This second edition is fully revised and updated to include a brief history of disability through the ages, the relevance of current educational policies to inclusion, technology in the inclusive classroom, intersectionality and its influence upon inclusive practices, working with families, and issues of transition from school to the post-school world. Each chapter now also includes a featured "voice from the field" written by persons with disabilities, parents, and teachers.

Must Inclusion be Special? examines the discord between special and inclusive education and why this discord can only be resolved when wider inequalities within mainstream education are confronted. It calls for a shift in our approach to provision, from seeing it as a conglomeration of individualised needs to identifying it as a conglomeration of collective needs. The author examines the political, medical and cultural tendency of current times to focus upon the individual and contrasts this with the necessity to focus on context. This book distinguishes the theoretical perspectives that are often associated with special or inclusive education and the broad range of interests which depend upon their ongoing development. This examination leads to a problematisation of mainstream education provision, our understanding of why social inequities emerge and how additional support can overcome these inequities. Further chapters explore the underlying challenges which emerge from our use and understanding of the notions of special and inclusive, outlining an alternative approach based upon a community of provision. This approach recognises the interconnectedness of services and the significance of context, and it encapsulates the aspiration of much international legislation for participation and inclusion for all. But it also assumes that we tend towards diffuse practices, services, policies, settings and roles, spread across provision which is variously inclusive and exclusionary. In seeking to create equitable participation for all, support needs to shift its focus from the individual to this diffuse network of contexts. Must Inclusion be Special? emerges from the research base which problematises inclusion and special education, drawing upon examples from many countries. It also refers to the author’s research into pedagogy, language and policy, and his experiences as a teacher and the parent of a child identified with special educational needs.

Diversity creates a rich environment for ideas to evolve into new and more refined forms. This pedagogical approach can help students to appreciate and value all forms of diversity and enrich learning. There is a need for administrators in education to institute policies that will support diversity and inclusion within special education classrooms. Rethinking Inclusion and Transformation in Special Education explores the latest findings on how children learn by discussing global policies and educational practices, considering professional expectations, establishing parent relationships that enhance communication, creating an effective learning environment that meets all students’ needs, and using technology wisely. Covering topics such as language development promotion, school leadership practices, and long-term skill support, this book is essential for special education teachers, diversity officers, school administrators, instructional designers, curriculum developers, academicians, researchers, and upper-level students.

Educators are continually pressured to create interesting and educational lessons for students of varying learning abilities. While technology steadily improves classroom learning, education systems struggle to develop more innovative teaching methods for students with disabilities. Cases on Service Delivery in Special Education Programs compiles real-world case studies on successful classroom models and practices to provide rewarding learning environments for students with disabilities. Addressing topics such as behavior modification, social development, and teacher collaboration, this publication is an essential reference source for special education teachers, supervisors, directors, administrators, principles, and policymakers, as well as academicians and researchers interested in developing special education programs within school districts and classrooms.

'[T]his book provides an excellent overview of special education, which will be a valuable resource for teachers, school managers and administrators, parents and indeed anyone with an interest in the development of provision for pupils with special educational needs. It is also likely to be an invaluable source book for researchers and postgraduate students alike' - REACH 'The Handbook offers a range of views on how to empower all learners to transcend their current performance and go "beyond the limits"' - Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology `This text makes an important contribution to special education. Perhaps, more significantly, it makes an important contribution to inclusive education, and possibly, even more widely, to education in general...it is a book that has significance for all of us who wish to move education towards a more equitable, democratic, humane, and dignified system for our young people' - Education in the North In recent years there has been increasingly vigorous debate about the nature and purpose of special education, and what might be considered the appropriate responses to pupils who experience difficulties in learning. This Handbook brings together the most up to date knowledge of this area and will serve as the major source book of authoritative information and ideas about current and future directions for special education. It examines the intricate relation between theory, research and practice, and places a particular emphasis on what has been learned about providing for students who experience difficulties in learning, how these understandings can contribute to new conceptualisations of special education and the development of more inclusive schools. This comprehensive, research-based work, brings together scholarship on an international level, and covers topics that transcend national boundaries. It will become essential reading for all professionals and academics with any interest in this important and dynamic field.

Updated to include changes in the field, this new edition addresses ethical issues that are most pressing to special education teachers and administrators. Using a case-based approach, students are encouraged to reason and collaborate about due process, the distribution of educational resources, institutional unresponsiveness, professional relationships, conflicts among parents and teachers, and confidentiality.