SPC ED 511: Social Construction of Disability
     
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    February 10, 2009 (class #4)


    Topic: Sociology of Disability

    Class outline:
    Announcements and quick questions and quandaries:
    • Go to wiki to sign up for films and books.
    • If you have not yet done so, you need to log on to the wiki tonight to provide comments and suggestions to colleagues regarding their language diary entries. Your comments should help them reflect on the meaning of the entries and assumptions about disability revealed through the observations.
    • Film review assignment: paper to be completed INDIVIDUALLY, but discussion (and movie night) with colleagues encouraged.
    Interactive presentation on paradigms (Note: this presentation will continue next week when we delve deeper into the three dominant paradigms in education).
    Quick Write: Which one of the assumptions underlying our special education system do you most strongly agree or disagree with? Why or why not? 
    Interactive presentation: underlying assumptions
     Small group activity:
    • Compare and contrast the assumptions underlying special education (pp. 678-679) with the assumptions of an ecological orientation towards disability (pp. 689-690). Discuss the implications for special education of a move toward a more ecological foundation.
    Minute Paper 

    Overheads:

    • PowerPoint
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    Handouts:
    Bogdan & Kugelmass' underlying assumptions
    Food for thought -- paradigmatic change
     
     

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    Reading Questions:

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      Note: All of the readings, required and recommended, can be found on electronic reserves at Zimmerman library. Please contact the instructor for the course password.
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    Authors: Bogdan & Knoll (1995)
    1.) The authors state that "special education, as it was conceived and still practiced, attributes a child's failure in school to some flaw within him or her" (p. 678). To what extent to you agree that academic failure is due to a lack within the student?
    2.) What ideas do you take away from the section about research (pp. 682-687)?
    3.) How does ecological theory, discussed in this chapter, relate to the theoretical frameworks presented in last week's reading by Jones?
    4.) What are some ways that you have seen "handicapism" manifested?
    5.) On page 701, Bogdan and Knoll identify 10 recurring stereotypical themes in the popular media. What recent films, television programs, or book have you seen/read that included one or more of these themes?
    6.) In general, what seems to be the point of this chapter?
    7.) Now that you've read this chapter:
    • what seem to be some important concepts in this reading?
    • what are some new terms for you?
    • what new questions do you have?
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    Extra Resources:
    Website Links:
    • This web page by Tim Healy at Santa Clara University provides a succinct and clearly written description of paradigm shift: http://www.ee.scu.edu/eefac/healy/kuhn.html
    • Check out the e-zine "Ragged Edge online": http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/
    • See this link for a discussion of rational and empirical approaches to epistemology: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/epist.html


    Readings from the recommended readings:

    Phillips, M. J. (1992). "Try harder": The experience of disability and the dilemma of normalization. In P. M. Ferguson & D. L. Ferguson & S. J. Taylor (Eds.), Interpreting disability: A qualitative reader (pp. 213-227). New York: Teachers College Press...

    Poplin, M. S. (1988a). Holistic/constructivist principles of the teaching/learning process: Implications for the field of learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21(7), 401-416.
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    Poplin, M. S. (1988b). The reductionistic fallacy in learning disabilities: Replicating the past by reducing the present. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21(7), 389-400.
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    Reid, D. K. (1988). Reflections on the pragmatics of a paradigm shift. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21(7), 417-420.
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    Forness, S. R. (1988). Reductionism, paradigm shifts, and learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21(7), 421-424.
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    Kimball, W. H., & Heron, T. E. (1988). A behavioral commentary on Poplin's discussion of reductionist fallacy and holistic/constructivist principles. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21(7), 425-428, 447..
     
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    Julia Scherba de Valenzuela, Ph.D.
    Last updated: February 6, 2009