Disability and Democracy: Reconstructing (Special) Education for Postmodernity. Special Education Series.

Overview & Synopsis

This book presents 10 chapters covering issues in the reconstruction of special education in inclusive schools. The book's three parts focus on deconstructing and reconstructing the professions, optional metatheories of special education and disability, and optional theories of special education and disability. Five of the chapters are by Thomas M. Skritic: "Theory/Practice and Objectivism: The Modern View of the Professions"; "Power/Knowledge and Pragmatism: A Postmodern View of the Professions"; "The Functionalist View of Special Education and Disability: Deconstructing the Conventional Knowledge Tradition"; "Special Education and Student Disability as Organizational Pathologies: Toward a Metatheory of School Organization and Change"; and "Deconstructing/Reconstructing Public Education: Social Reconstruction in the Postmodern Era." The other five chapters are: "The Interpretivist View of Special Education and Disability: The Value of Telling Stories" (Philip M. Ferguson and Dianne L. Ferguson); "The Radical Structuralist View of Special Education and Disability: Unpopular Perspectives on Their Origins and Development" (Sally Tomlinson); "The Radical Humanist View of Special Education and Disability: Consciousness, Freedom, and Ideology" (Dwight C. Kiel); "Radical Structuralist Perspectives on the Creation and Use of Learning Disabilities" (Christine E. Sleeter); and "Holism and Special Education: There Is No Substitute for Real Life Purposes and Processes" (Lous Heshusius). (Individual papers contain references.) (DB)