Beyond the far too incessant schism: special education and the social model of disability

Abstract

Special education critics' vigorous appraisals of the social model of disability, along with their analysis of its implications for special education, provide a valuable forum for meaningful dialogue about how educators are to understand the nature of disability. In this article, we offer our response to their recent articles. As advocates of the social model, we find their critiques intriguing, at moments a bit provocative, but more importantly we find in their work an opportunity to advance beyond the far too incessant schism between those who support the medical model of disability and those who endorse its alternatives.

Keywords:

• disability
• inclusive education
• special education

Notes on contributors

Deborah J. Gallagher is a Professor of Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Her interests center on the philosophy of science as it pertains to research on disability, pedagogy, and inclusion. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, she is the lead author of a book entitled Challenging Orthodoxy in Special Education: Dissenting Voices (Love Publishing).

David J. Connor is a Professor of Education at Hunter College, City University of New York. His interests include inclusive education, learning disabilities, and qualitative research. Along with Susan Gabel, he is the co-author of the recently published Disability and Teaching (Routledge).

Beth A. Ferri is a Professor of Inclusive Education & Disability Studies at Syracuse University. She has published widely on the topics of gender, race, and disability. Her recently co-edited book (with Arlene Kanter), Righting Educational Wrongs: Disability Studies in Law & Education was recently published by Syracuse University Press.

Notes

1. A third article on the social model of disability by these authors is currently in press in the journal Medicine and Philosophy.

2. Disability studies, as an interdisciplinary field of study, is not monolithic or static. There are various articulations of what has been called the social model of disability by scholars in the UK and the minority model by US scholars. Although scholars sometimes identify as taking either a social model or minority model approach, you will also see these terms used interchangeably. Of course, disability studies is not in any way limited to the USA or UK, and to reduce the social model in this way is to erase the vibrancy of disability studies scholarship happening across the globe.

3. Readers are encouraged to read the exchange between Kauffman and Sasso (2006a, 2006b) and Gallagher (2006) for in-depth elaboration on this issue.

4. Some of the influential scholars who provided an intellectual context for the emergence of disability studies in education include Lous Heshusius, Ellen Brantlinger, Len Barton, Barry Franklin, D. Kim Reid, Christine Sleeter, Burton Blatt, Bob Bodgan, Steve Taylor, Doug Biklen, Tom Skrtic, and others.

5. We wish to acknowledge that the scholarship we mention in this section is simply a representative cross-section of scholarly work that we would classify as DSE. We also include both foundational texts that remain influential and some of the more contemporary scholarship in DSE.