Education Commons^™

Race, Language, And Ability: Deconstructing, Reconstructing, And Transcending Borders Of Normal, Brooke Prichard, Subini A. Annamma, Amy L. Boele, Janette Klingner

Amy Boele

This commentary explores how conceptions of "normal" have been constructed around issues of race, language, and ability. By combining three theoretical frameworks, Critical Race Theory, Cultural Historical Activity Theory, and Disability Studies, the authors attempt to deconstruct, reconstruct, and transcend the perceived borders of normal.

Educational Genocide: Examining The Impact Of National Education Policy On African American Communities, Christopher Knaus, Rachelle Rogers-Ard

Christopher Knaus

Abstract This paper clarifies the cumulative impact of the current national education policy on African-American children, which ultimately aims to limit local control of urban schools. The authors argue that urban schools in the United States are increasingly required to rely upon temporary teachers who are trained to implement a curriculum focused on standardized testing. The No Child Left Behind Act and the current Duncan administration’s approach to closing (and re-opening) schools combines to further exclude low-income community involvement in local schools. These efforts to control the development, hiring, and evaluation of local educators further expands educational racism that silences …

Cohesion In Spoken And Written Dialogue: An Investigation Of Cultural And Textual Constraints, Johanna Destefano, Rebecca Kantor

Rebecca Kantor

Interactions of language, culture, minority group membership, and literacy instruction in schools have evidently spelled success for some children but not for others. The purpose of this study was to explore an area of intersection among language use, ethnolinguistic group membership, and literacy learning materials to provide additional insight into the higher rates of literacy problems in urban black and Appalachian cultures. Specifically, it investigated how the informal discourse modes, exemplified by mother-child dialogue in a child's home environment, compared and contrasted with more formal discourse modes, exemplified by dialogue among characters in basal reader stories and in children's storybooks. …

The Acquisition Of Classifiers In American Sign Language, Rebecca Kantor

Rebecca Kantor

The purpose of this study was to obtain data on the developmental stages that deaf children pass through in acquiring the adult form of pronominal classifiers in American Sign Language, by obtaining data on production, comprehension, and imitation from nine children aged three to eleven years. All nine children are congenitally, profoundly deaf and have deaf parents. In all cases classifiers were mastered much later than would be predicted from a timetable for signs with similar structure. Evidence was found for a developmental sequence and for acquisition strategies similar to those that have been identified for hearing children learning a …

Communicative Interaction: Mother Modification And Child Acquisition Of American Sign Language, Rebecca Kantor

Rebecca Kantor

The communicative interaction in American Sign Language (ASL) of two deaf mothers with their deaf children was studied at 3-week intervals for 10 months to find what modification, if any, the mothers made in their language utterances addressed to the children (12–20 and 20–30 months old). As was hypothesized, and has been shown of hearing-speaking mothers’ language, modification in the direction of simplified and more linear language was found. Special attention was paid to POINTing behavior (i.e. pointing gestures constrained by the linguistic rules of ASL) and to verb “modulation” or inflection (changes from ASL citation forms to mark the …

The Impact Of White Teachers On The Academic Achievement Of Black Students: An Exploratory Qualitative Analysis, Bruce Douglas, Chance Lewis, Adrian Douglas, Malcom Scott, Dorothy Garrison-Wade

Dorothy Garrison-Wade

In today's school systems, students of color, particularly in urban settings, represent the majority student populations (Lewis, Hancock, James, & Larke, in press). Interestingly, the educators--teachers and administrators--that comprise these settings are predominately White, and, in turn, the students of color commonly face pressures that students who do not share the racial and cultural background of the educators do not (Landsman & Lewis, 2006). This study on black student perceptions of their White teachers is grounded in Milner's (2006) theoretical assumptions, which focus on problems that White teachers commonly experience when teaching students of color, particularly African American students in …

Forum Introduction: Writing The Global Family: International Perspectives On Disability Studies And Family Narratives, Janet Sauer, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

"We live in the Golden Age of the memoir. Everyone has a story to tell, and a growing number are finding their way to publication. The disability memoir has certainly been a part of this growth. It is refreshing to note how many of these recent narrative accounts of living with a disability have been written from what might be broadly termed a "disability studies perspective" taking on a more critical, socio-cultural orientation than the traditional 'inspiration in the face of personal tragedy' motif."

The Policy/Parent Gap, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

"[T]here is probably no area where the rhetoric and the reality are so far apart as in the inclusion of children with disabilities in general education classrooms. Despite official national and state education policies (embodied in laws, regulations, and court decisions) supporting inclusive education for students with disabilities, access to the general curriculum, and a massive commitment of public funds, data from the Department of Education shows that urban schools consistently place such students in more segregated settings for greater parts of the day and year than do school systems generally."

The Experience Of Disability In Families: A Synthesis Of Research And Parent Narratives, Philip Ferguson, Alan Gartner, Dorothy Lipsky

Philip M. Ferguson

This chapter focuses on the difficulties parents of those with intellectual disabilities face.

From Giving Service To Being Of Service, Philip Ferguson, Patricia O'Brien

Philip M. Ferguson

This chapter focuses on the place of those with intellectual disabilities in the Western world.

Finding A Voice: Families’ Roles In Schools, Dianne Ferguson, Amy Hanreddy, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

Every day, around the world, families of children with disabilities experience a wide range of settings and services meant to provide support for the challenges they face.

Winks, Blinks, Squints And Twitches: Looking For Disability And Culture Through My Son’S Left Eye, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

This chapter focuses on the culture and human experience of having an intellectual disability.

Place, Profession And Program In The History Of Special Education Curriculum, Scot Danforth, Steve Taff, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

"This chapter explores how three topical threads: place, professionalism, and program, have woven their way through the history of special education. The authors argue that these themes have played out over the last 200 years in the United States in a way that provides a helpful explanatory narrative for the evolution of policies and practices for children with disabilities. The authors' narrative looks at three key eras. First, they look at the influence of the French Enlightenment on American social activists in the middle of the 19th century. This was a time when the theme of place held sway as …

The Present King Of France Is Feeble-Minded: The Logic And History Of The Continuum Of Placements For People With Intellectual Disabilities, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

This chapter focuses on the logic and history of the continuum of placements for people with intellectual disabilities.

“First Grub, Then Ethics”: The Place Of Research In A Time Of Crisis, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

A reflection on school's failures to meet the needs of students with disabilities and their families in light of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Snapshots Issue 3: Equity And Effectiveness, Sue Thomson, Kylie Hillman

Kylie Hillman

A key message from the most recent OECD PISA report released by ACER in December 2013 is that high-performing countries tend to allocate resources more equitably across socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged schools. This issue of Snapshots looks to the data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), to examine whether this is the case for Australia.

Ellsworth, Jeanne And Ames, Lynda J. (Eds.) (1998). Critical Perspectives On Project Head Start: Revisioning The Hope And Challenge. New York: State University Of New York Press, Teresa Eagle

Teresa R. Eagle

With more than three decades of implementation of this popular War on Poverty effort, the editors of this critical collection readily admit that an extensive body of research and evaluation already exists regarding Project Head Start. However, Ellsworth and Ames also indicate that the majority of this research has tended to focus on outcomes, "most often measuring and charting quantifiable changes in children." (p. ix) This collection of writings, by contrast, takes a more qualitative approach to analyzing the strengths and failings of one of the most popular governmental efforts in recent history. Comprised of fourteen chapters, the book draws …

Urban School Counselor Preparation Through Service Learning: Development Of Multicultural And Social Justice Awareness (Tsccain), Amy Cook, Laura Hayden

Laura A Hayden

Given the increasing diversity in our nation’s schools and communities, preparing school counseling students to understand and address systemic inequities are instrumental in the development of counseling skills and techniques. This session will provide counselor educators with methods to implement a uniform service-learning approach to teaching school counseling field experience seminars, while incorporating ideas for developing students’ multicultural competency and social justice awareness.

Every Face Has A Place: Disability, Mental Health And Kidsmatter, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix

Understanding Equity Through Research Data, John Ainley

Dr John Ainley

Large-scale assessments over several years reveal that reading achievement has improved in primary schools, while reading and maths achievement in middle secondary school has declined. John Ainley explains.

Location, Location: Student Achievement And Regionality, Petra Lietz

Dr Petra Lietz

The further schools are from larger cities, the more challenging it is for their students to excel, but some buck the trend. Petra Lietz explains.

Disability And Children’S Mental Health Through The Kidsmatter Lens, Katherine Dix, Paul Cahalan

Dr Katherine Dix

Mental Health Promotion And Wellbeing In Schools: Everyone's Right To Feel Safe, Katherine Dix, Tracy Zilm

Dr Katherine Dix

Quality Matters…Whole-School Mental Health Promotion And Students’ Learning, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix

Helping Kids With Disability, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix

Allied Educators (Learning And Behavioural) In Singapore’S Mainstream Schools: First Steps Towards Inclusivity?, Sirene Lim, Meng Wong, Denise Tan

Sirene Lim

It is arguable whether Singapore's mainstream schools are moving towards ‘inclusion’ by providing support for students with mild to moderate disabilities through the provision of a newly created para-professional called the Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural) [AED(LBS)]. Since 2005, the government has provided an incremental supply of these trained para-professionals to offer both in-class support and withdrawal sessions. Many primary and secondary schools have one such para-professional catering to an unpredictable number of children with and without assessed learning needs. This paper draws upon data from a study investigating how a group of 30 newly qualified AED(LBS) para-professionals shaped their …

Session H - Improving School Practices For Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Students : The Voices Of Their Parents And Carers, Brian Giles-Brown, Gina Milgate

Gina C Milgate

Concurrent Session Block 2

Editorial: Social Inclusion – Are We There Yet?, Kimberley Mcmahon-Coleman, Alisa Percy, Bronwyn James

Kimberley McMahon-Coleman

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Developing College Skills In Students With Autism And Asperger’S Syndrome, Kimberley Mcmahon-Coleman

Kimberley McMahon-Coleman

Book Review of Sarita Freedman's "Developing College Skills in Students with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome."

Relationship Of Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors Of Primary Caregivers With A History Of Sexual Abuse And Perfectionism In Their Sexually Abused Children, Alyssa Lundahl, Tiffany West, Elaine Martin, Christopher Campbell, Jayci Vanderbeek, David Hansen

David J. Hansen

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with many short- and long-term sequelae including obsessive-compulsive behaviors (OCB) and perfectionism. Research suggests that the expression of child perfectionism may be influenced by caregivers’ OCB and CSA history. Caregivers with a CSA history may engage in dysfunctional parenting styles associated with child perfectionism, while children of caregivers with OCB may exhibit increased perfectionism due to genetics and/or the internalization of their parents’ perfectionist tendencies. However, given the high prevalence of OCB among those with a CSA history, the relationships among caregivers’ expression of OCB, caregivers’ CSA history, and child perfectionism is unclear. Thus, …