Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion (Inclusive Education) - Softcover

Thomas, Gary; Loxley, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335204481 ISBN 13: 9780335204489

Publisher: Open University Press, 2001

Synopsis

"Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion is a sophisticated, multidisciplinary critique of special education that leaves virtually no intellectual stone unturned. It is a must read for anyone interested in the role and significance of inclusive pedagogy in the new struggle for an inclusive society" - Professor Tom Skrtic, University of Kansas

In this book the authors look behind special education to its supposed intellectual foundations. They find a knowledge jumble constructed of bits and pieces from Piagetian, psychoanalytic, psychometric and behavioural theoretical models. They examine the consequences of these models' influence for professional and popular thinking about learning difficulty. In turn, they explore and critique the results of this dominance for our views about children who are different and for the development of special education and its associated professions. In the light of this critique, they suggest that much of the 'knowledge' of special education is misconceived, and they proceed to advance a powerful rationale for inclusion out of ideas about stakeholding, social justice and human rights. Concluding that inclusion owes more to political theory than to psychology or sociology, the authors suggest that a rethink is needed about the ways in which we come by educational knowledge. This is important reading for students of education, and for teachers, advisers and educational psychologists.

About this title

About the Authors

Gary Thomas took up the post of chair in education at Birmingham in 2005. Before university teaching, he worked as a teacher and as an educational psychologist. In higher education at the University of Leeds, at Oxford Brookes University, UWE and University College London his teaching and research have focused on inclusion, special education, and research methodology in education. He has received awards from the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the DfES, Barnardos, the Cadmean Trust, local authorities and a range of other organisations. Most of his funded research has been on inclusive or special education, though his Leverhulme Research Fellowship was awarded to examine the role of theory in education. He currently leads an ESRC thematic seminar competition in the Teaching and Learning Research Programme on the assessment of quality in educational research. He is the founding co-editor of a Taylor & Francis Carfax journal, the International Journal of Research and Method in Education and he is an editorial board member of the British Educational Research Journal.

Andrew Loxley is now a lecturer in education at Trinity College,, having previously worked at the University of Leeds and the Open University as a research fellow. Prior to undertaking his PhD in quasi-markets and special education, he worked as a teacher in a residential school for children with behaviour problems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Open University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0335204481
• ISBN 13: 9780335204489
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160