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Full-Text Articles in Education

Abandoned To Their Fate: A History Of Social Policy And Practice Toward Severely Retarded People In America, 1820-1920, Philip Ferguson Jun 2015

Abandoned To Their Fate: A History Of Social Policy And Practice Toward Severely Retarded People In America, 1820-1920, Philip Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

This study examines the history of severely mentally retarded people from 1820 to 1920 in America, and their relationship with an emerging class of professionals newly charged with their care. The early history of one specialized asylum in Rome, New York, receives particular attention as an illustrative case study of the processes that influenced institutional development throughout the last half of the nineteenth century. The notion of "chronicity" is adopted to refer to a process of social construction whereby multiple dimensions of social failure (aesthetic, moral, and economic) in the lives of people called "idiots" and "imbeciles," were subsumed under …


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 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."


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.


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.