Deborah J. Gallagher, Lous Heshusius, Richard P. Iano, & Thomas M. Skrtic

This book discusses some of the core philosophical concepts in special education and provides an in-depth look at future possibilities. Will the field function much as it does today or make coherent changes? How will the heated debates about full inclusion, labeling, and definitions of disabilities play out? How will the research on instructional practices and teacher preparation generate changes? This text will be of considerable interest to professionals and students in special education, disability studies, educational administration, curriculum, and policy studies.

The expert authors offer perspectives on the problems facing special education and some of the possible solutions. They bring together the latest thinking in the philosophy of science, sociology, disability studies, and disciplines outside of special education.

The intended audience for this book includes graduate students and teacher educators involved with graduate seminars centered on critical issues in education.

Special Features

• Helps readers to better understand the inclusion debates
• Provides educators with tools to grasp the issues in special education for a more inclusive, equitable, and democratic education for all students
• Blends engaging new ideas from experts in the field to understand the present and shape the future of special education
• Examines a constructivist perspective and the confusion between discovery and construction

Contents

1. Entering the Conversation: The Debate Behind the Debates in Special Education
2. The Newtonian Mechanistic Paradigm, Special Education, and Countours of Alternatives: An Overview
3. The Study and Development of Teaching: With Implications for Advancement of Special Education
4. The Special Education Paradox: Equity as the Way to Excellence
5. From Creative Discontent Toward Epistemological Freedom in Special Education: Reflections on a 25-Year Journey
6. The Tale of a Reluctant Empiricist
7. An Accidental Tourist or Deliberate Seeker: Two True Stories
8. Special Education Knowledge: The Inevitable Struggle with the Self
9. Inside the Schools: Special Education and Inclusion ReforM
10. Critical Disability Studies
11. Moving the Conversation Forward: Empiricism Versus Relativism Reconsidered

400 pages
2004/Paperback/ISBN 978-0-89108-301-6
$56.00