Special Education in Contemporary Society: An Introduction to Exceptionality

Special Education in Contemporary Society: An Introduction to Exceptionality, Seventh Edition offers a comprehensive, engaging, and readable introduction to the dynamic field of special education. Grounded in research and updated to reflect the most current thinking and standards of the field, this book provides readers with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that are crucial to constructing learning environments that allow all students to reach their full potential. Authors Richard M. Gargiulo and Emily C. Bouck encourage a deep awareness and understanding of the “human” side of special education, providing readers with a look into the lives of exceptional students and their families, as well as the teachers that work with exceptional persons throughout their lives.

Also available as a digital option (courseware). Learn more about Special Education in Contemporary Society-Vantage Digital Option, Seventh Edition [ISBN: 978-1-0718-2599-0]

I have always desired to be an educator. I guess I am a rarity in that I never changed my undergraduate major or left the field of education. My undergraduate education began at Hiram Scott College in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Three years later, I was teaching fourth graders in the Milwaukee public schools while working toward my master's degree in intellectual disability at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. At the conclusion of my first year of teaching, I was asked to teach a class of young children with intellectual disability. I jumped at the opportunity and for the next three years essentially became an early childhood special educator. It was at this point in my career that I decided to earn my doctorate. I resigned my teaching position and moved to Madison, where I pursued a PhD in the areas of human learning, child development, and behavioral disabilities. Upon receiving my degree, I accepted a faculty position in the Department of Special Education at Bowling Green State University (Ohio), where for the next eight years I was a teacher educator. In 1982, I moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and joined the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where, until my retirement, I served as a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. In November 2014, I was awarded professor emeritus status by the board of trustees of the University of Alabama system.

I have enjoyed a rich and rewarding professional career spanning more than four decades. During the course of this journey, I have had the privilege of twice serving as president of the Alabama Federation, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC); serving as president of the Division of International Special Education and Services (DISES), CEC; and serving as president of the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD), CEC. I mostly served as the Southeast representative to the board of directors of DADD. I have lectured abroad extensively and was a Fulbright Scholar to the Czech Republic in 1991. In 2007, I was invited to serve as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Teaching has always been my passion. In 1999, I was fortunate to receive UAB's President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2007, I received the Jasper Harvey Award from the Alabama Federation of CEC in recognition of being named the outstanding special education teacher educator in the state.

With a background in both educational psychology and special education, my research has appeared in a wide variety of professional journals including Child Development, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Learning Disabilities, American Journal of Mental Deficiency, Childhood Education, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, Journal of Special Education, Early Childhood Education Journal, International Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology, and International Journal of Special Education, among a host of others.

In addition to the present text, I have authored or coauthored more than ten books, several enjoying multiple editions, ranging in topics from counseling parents of children with disabilities to child abuse, early childhood education, teaching in inclusive classrooms, and, most recently, instructional strategies for students with intellectual disability.

Emily Bouck is an Associate Professor of Special Education in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education at Michigan State University. She received her doctorate in special education from Michigan State University. Dr. Bouck is the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters relating to her two main areas of research: mathematics education for students with disabilities and functional life-skills education for students with disabilities with a central theme of assistive technology throughout both areas. Dr. Bouck is a Past President of the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children and has also been active in the Technology and Media Division of the Council for Exceptional Children. Dr. Bouck taught courses on assistive technology; social, legal, and ethical issues in special education; special education methods; and doctoral seminars. She has experience working with a range of students with disabilities in school-settings from preschool through age 26.