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Full-Text Articles in Education

Educational Genocide: Examining The Impact Of National Education Policy On African American Communities, Christopher Knaus, Rachelle Rogers-Ard Dec 2015

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 …


The Semantic Domain Of Classifiers In American Sign Language, Ronnie Wilbur, Mark E. Bernstein, Rebecca Kantor Oct 2015

The Semantic Domain Of Classifiers In American Sign Language, Ronnie Wilbur, Mark E. Bernstein, Rebecca Kantor

Rebecca Kantor

This study observed the communicative partnerships between normal-hearing mothers and their normal-hearing (N=3) or hearing-impaired (N=5) children (ages 17-46 months) prior to brief periods of separation. Results indicated that the quality and development of communicative interaction between normal-hearing mothers and hearing-impaired children is central to the success of early education programs.


Cohesion In Spoken And Written Dialogue: An Investigation Of Cultural And Textual Constraints, Johanna Destefano, Rebecca Kantor Oct 2015

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 Oct 2015

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 Oct 2015

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 …


Students’ Perceptions About Successfully Transitioning To Postsecondary Institutions, Dorothy Garrison-Wade, Jean P. Lehmann Sep 2015

Students’ Perceptions About Successfully Transitioning To Postsecondary Institutions, Dorothy Garrison-Wade, Jean P. Lehmann

Dorothy Garrison-Wade

Through the auspices of federal legislation, students with disabilities are gaining access to higher education. Still for many students with disabilities, the paramount barriers facing them in their transition to postsecondary education are overwhelming. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of 59 postsecondary students with disabilities on factors students perceived to inhibit or contribute to their successful transition into college. The study examines support services and access to reasonable accommodations available to students with disabilities. Students reported the major barriers to accessing college and succeeding in college were societal attitudes, lack of preparation, and financial constraints. 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 Sep 2015

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 …


Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan Aug 2015

Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan

Dr Julie McMillan

Access to university has always been an issue for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the recent context of an expanding higher education system in Australia, some accessibility issues have been alleviated. This context offers an opportunity to explore the pathways of disadvantaged students through university. In this expanded system, will disadvantaged students be more or less likely to complete university? Will demographic or enrolment characteristics influence the likelihood of these students to complete? This report details the findings from a research project funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) that explores new data tracking student …


Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan Aug 2015

Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan

Dr Julie McMillan

Access to university has always been an issue for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the recent context of an expanding higher education system in Australia, some accessibility issues have been alleviated. This context offers an opportunity to explore the pathways of disadvantaged students through university. In this expanded system, will disadvantaged students be more or less likely to complete university? Will demographic or enrolment characteristics influence the likelihood of these students to complete? This report details the findings from a research project funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) that explores new data tracking student …


Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan Aug 2015

Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan

Dr Daniel Edwards

Access to university has always been an issue for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the recent context of an expanding higher education system in Australia, some accessibility issues have been alleviated. This context offers an opportunity to explore the pathways of disadvantaged students through university. In this expanded system, will disadvantaged students be more or less likely to complete university? Will demographic or enrolment characteristics influence the likelihood of these students to complete? This report details the findings from a research project funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) that explores new data tracking student …


Developing Bilateral And Spatial Concepts In Primary School-Aged Children: An Empirical Evaluation Of The Anker Bilateral Spatial System, Janet Richmond Dr, M Taylor Dr, S Evans Jul 2015

Developing Bilateral And Spatial Concepts In Primary School-Aged Children: An Empirical Evaluation Of The Anker Bilateral Spatial System, Janet Richmond Dr, M Taylor Dr, S Evans

Janet E Richmond PhD

Background: Visual-spatial and visual-motor perceptual difficulties contribute to school-aged learning problems. Hence, a need exists to address children’s visual-spatial and visual-motor perceptual difficulties as early as possible in the child’s school career. Thus, this study reports on the evaluation of the Anker Bilateral Spatial System’s (ABSS) effectiveness in remediating primary school children’s perceptual difficulties. Method: Thirty-one children (17 boys and 14 girls) aged 6 to 12 years who had been identified by their classroom teacher as having observable visual-spatial and visual-motor perceptual difficulties participated in a 10-week pre/posttest intervention study. The study’s pre/posttest assessments included the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor …


Forum Introduction: Writing The Global Family: International Perspectives On Disability Studies And Family Narratives, Janet Sauer, Philip Ferguson Jun 2015

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."


Winks, Blinks, Squints, And Twitches: Looking For Disability And Culture Through Our Son’S Left Eye, Philip M. Ferguson, Dianne L. Ferguson Jun 2015

Winks, Blinks, Squints, And Twitches: Looking For Disability And Culture Through Our Son’S Left Eye, Philip M. Ferguson, Dianne L. Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

In this article, we argue that while an appreciation of disability's cultural context is fundamental, we should be careful not to replace one essentialist version of disability with a new one. We look at the relational patterns that emerge from the specific circumstances of significant intellectual disability. This article follows Clifford Geertz’ well‐known account of the multiple layers of cultural context and interpretive richness raised by even a seemingly simple act such as winking. By exploring the meaning of son's ability to wink, we argue that intellectual disability may be interpreted as the absence of culture. The article goes on …


Creating The Continuum: J. E. Wallace Wallin And The Role Of Clinical Psychology In The Emergence Of Public School Special Education In America, Philip M. Ferguson Jun 2015

Creating The Continuum: J. E. Wallace Wallin And The Role Of Clinical Psychology In The Emergence Of Public School Special Education In America, Philip M. Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

This paper reviews the history of the continuum of services in intellectual disability programs. The emergence of public school special education in the United States in the first two decades of the 20th century is used as a case study of this history by focusing on events and personalities connected to the St. Louis Public Schools. Using Annual Reports from the era along with the abundant publications and personal papers of J.E. Wallace Wallin, the author explores how the growing class of specialists in clinical psychology and psychometrics gained a foothold in the schools as educational gatekeepers for student placements …


The Policy/Parent Gap, Philip Ferguson Jun 2015

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 Jun 2015

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.


The Promise Of Adulthood, Philip M. Ferguson, Dianne L. Ferguson Jun 2015

The Promise Of Adulthood, Philip M. Ferguson, Dianne L. Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

"How do we assure ourselves that [our severely disabled son] Ian is somehow contributing to all the choices that get made about what constitutes a good adult life for him? We have created new options for Ian and others as we have struggled to answer these ques-tions. We have also increased our understanding of what it means for someone who has a variety of severe disabilities to be adult."


From Giving Service To Being Of Service, Philip Ferguson, Patricia O'Brien Jun 2015

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.


Family Portraits: Past And Present Representations Of Parents In Special Education Text Books, Dianne L. Ferguson, Philip M. Ferguson, Joanne Kim, Corrine Li Jun 2015

Family Portraits: Past And Present Representations Of Parents In Special Education Text Books, Dianne L. Ferguson, Philip M. Ferguson, Joanne Kim, Corrine Li

Philip M. Ferguson

This paper analyses the descriptions of families of children with disabilities as contained in introductory special education texts over the last 50 years. These text books are typically used in pre-service teacher education courses as surveys of the education of ‘exceptional children’. The textbooks reflect the mainstream professional assumptions of the era about topics such as disability, special education, inclusion, and family/school linkages. However, they also shape the assumptions of the next generation of educators about these same topics. The paper summarises the results of a qualitative document analysis of a sample of these textbooks from two different eras. The …


Finding A Voice: Families’ Roles In Schools, Dianne Ferguson, Amy Hanreddy, Philip Ferguson Jun 2015

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 Jun 2015

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 Jun 2015

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 Jun 2015

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 Jun 2015

“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.


Creating The Back Ward: The Triumph Of Custodialism And The Uses Of Therapeutic Failure In Nineteenth Century Idiot Asylums, Philip M. Ferguson Jun 2015

Creating The Back Ward: The Triumph Of Custodialism And The Uses Of Therapeutic Failure In Nineteenth Century Idiot Asylums, Philip M. Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

"My focus in this chapter is on the origin of the back ward rather than its demise. Where did the “back wards” that [Burton] Blatt and [Senator Robert] Kennedy witnessed come from in the first place? What 3 exactly were those “antecedents of the problems observed” that Blatt cited? This chapter reviews that history and argues that, in fact, there is a specific narrative to the evolution of the institutional “back ward” as an identifiable place where people with the most significant intellectual disabilities were to be incarcerated and largely forgotten."


What Do Elementary School Librarians Know And Believe About Students With Color Vision Deficiencies?, Karla Collins Jun 2015

What Do Elementary School Librarians Know And Believe About Students With Color Vision Deficiencies?, Karla Collins

Karla Collins

Colour vision deficiencies affect approximately eight percent of the male population, yet the condition is often overlooked in the educational setting despite the pervasiveness of colour in the school. The purpose of this study was to explore how elementary school librarians provide instruction and prepare the library environment to meet the needs of students with colour vision deficiencies. Findings indicate that elementary school librarians in Virginia did not feel knowledgeable about colour vision deficiencies but were interested in knowing more and expressed a desire to make changes. The case study participants'ʹ knowledge increased from pre-­‐‑test to post-­‐‑test. There were noticeable …


The Limits Of Federal Disability Law: State Educational Voucher Programs, Wendy Hensel May 2015

The Limits Of Federal Disability Law: State Educational Voucher Programs, Wendy Hensel

Wendy F. Hensel

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating the state of Wisconsin with respect to its administration of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), which provides low-income students with public money to attend private schools. Faced with complaints of disability discrimination by private schools accepting voucher students, DOJ has ordered Wisconsin to oversee and police these schools to ensure compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to states and their agencies, and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which applies to recipients of federal funding. Although conditioning its directive on the state's coverage under these …


Counseling Exceptional Students, Anthony F. Rotatori, Paul J. Gerber, Freddie W. Litton, Robert A. Fox Mar 2015

Counseling Exceptional Students, Anthony F. Rotatori, Paul J. Gerber, Freddie W. Litton, Robert A. Fox

Robert Fox

This book was designed by its authors to convey the disability-specific information necessary for counseling efforts to support the mainstreamed exceptional child. Successful counseling with exceptional children calls for background on such issues as etiology, definition, prevalence, and characteristics. Moreover, knowledge of counseling problems as viewed by children, their parents, and teachers is necessary to provide balance to the ecological perspectives needed to counsel the "whole child." The authors also have included within the discussion of each chapter successful counseling findings related in the literature. This in no way precludes other approaches or modalities of counseling, but it does provide …


Behavioral Weight Reduction Program For Mentally Handicapped Persons: A Self-Control Approach, Anthony F. Rotatori, Robert A. Fox Mar 2015

Behavioral Weight Reduction Program For Mentally Handicapped Persons: A Self-Control Approach, Anthony F. Rotatori, Robert A. Fox

Robert Fox

Behavioral Weight Reduction Program for Mentally Handicapped Persons was reviewed for accuracy by a nutritionist and by a physician. Special education teachers and nurses will be able to fully utilize this superb program of nutritional information and structured instructional procedures. Nutritionists will applaud the forms and the ideas introduced in this "one of a kind" program.


Snapshots Issue 3: Equity And Effectiveness, Sue Thomson, Kylie Hillman Feb 2015

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.