I was a special education teacher for several years, and during my time teaching, I became aware that not enough emphasis was being placed on the strengths of children who had been sent to my special classes.  This made me resolve to do some research, and I had the opportunity to do this when I did...Read More

Yesterday I talked about "blurring the boundaries" in categories (e.g. learning disabled, gifted etc.).  As one participant in our cyberconference put it:   " Nobody experiences disability 100% of the time, in every situation; nor is someone ALWAYS "gifted and talented".   Consequently, from a lived perspective, from a contextually rich perspective, labels don't really have a place.  There are...Read More

I'm happy to have received some comments already from participants in the CRSTE Cyberconference 2010, and would like to make some reflections on them in this post.  One issue that came up was the deficit-oriented paradigm that is too often used in special education.  One participant shared the experience of a friend who had attended special education...Read More

  The history of special education in the United States is a dramatic one. Without going into the whole legislative history, suffice it to say that during the 1970’s, due in large part to increasing scientific involvement in special needs issues as well as concerted parent advocacy efforts during the 1960’s and 1970’s, public schools...Read More