Scot Danforth Boeken

Disability studies in education is a provocative and innovative field of social inquiry that challenges standard ways of thinking about disability in education, practices that serve to exclude disabled people from equal educational opportunity, and policies that support or drive inequality. This book brings together the best disability studies in education scholars to address the pressing questions facing the field. It provides an introduction to the field for the newcomer, a sharp challenge to the status quo in special and general education, and a map to understanding the serious disability issues confronting education today.

With the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975, the learning disability construct gained national legitimacy. Feeding that political achievement, behind the very idea of a learning disability, was the development of a science that blended neurology, psychology, and education. This book tracks the historical creation of the science of learning disabilities, beginning with the clinical research with brain-injured World War I soldiers conducted by German physician Kurt Goldstein. It traces the growth of the two primary research traditions, the psycholinguistic theory of Samuel Kirk and the movement education of Newell Kephart, exploring how specific scientific orientations, theories, and practices led to the birth of the learning disability in the United States.

The historical development of the learning disability construct is explored through its scientific roots in neurology, psychology, and education, beginning with Kurt Goldstein's research on brain-injured World War I soldiers. The book examines the evolution of two key research traditions: Samuel Kirk's psycholinguistic theory and Newell Kephart's movement education. It highlights how these scientific orientations and theories contributed to the establishment of learning disabilities as a recognized concept in the United States following the enactment of Public Law 94-142 in 1975.

Becoming a Great Inclusive Educator, Second Edition offers educators the guidance and resources to become great inclusive educators by engaging in a powerful process of personal and professional transformation. Inclusive education continues to grow in popularity and acceptance in the United States. But most teachers - general and special educators - are poorly prepared to be successful in inclusive classrooms and schools. Undoubtedly, the challenge to professionals involves the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. But inclusion requires far more. It calls upon educators to trouble everything they think they know about disability, to question their deepest ethical commitments, to take up the work of the Disability Rights Movement in the public schools, and to leap headlong into the deepest waters of the rich craft tradition of inclusive teaching.