SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDIES

Special Education Studies

Special Education Studies

Introduction

Depending on the perspective taken, special education can be characterized as a legally mandated system of services that ensures access to educational provision for disabled students and their families; a mechanism that ensures some, but not all, children will be afforded access to life opportunities as a outcome of historically inequitable educational provision; or as an institutional safeguard to defend students and teachers in the general education system from the problems impersonated by disability and distinction in public schools. The process by which families are active participants in their children's education, and become more autonomous as consumers of services for their children with special needs is complex. To reach the goal of educating their children, families must have a reciprocal relationship of support and cooperation from the school. (Doyle, 1983, 160) Modern special education borrowed much of its understanding about the nature of disabilities from other fields, for example medicine and psychology, where it was widely held that:

Disability is a provision that is inherent among certain individuals

Disability labels are helpful in making objective characteristics between people with and without disabilities

Systems of services that help people with disabilities are rationally conceived and coordinated

Progress toward helping people with disabilities can be made by improving diagnosis and intervention.

Embedded in these assumptions was the belief that research could ultimately recognize and grant evidence of successful practices for enabling persons with disabilities to lead productive and rewarding lives in educational and community environments (Brown, 1989, pp: 33).

Methodology

Participants

It was decided to focus this survey on those PGCE programs which were judged by the Inspection agency, Ousted, as providing overall better quality programs. This was different from the Ousted survey which was based on programs representing the range of trainee evaluations (from TDA annual national surveys of trainees) So, PGCE programs with the higher Ousted A and B ratings were identified, not those with lower C and D ratings, as the aim was to survey practices in more highly regarded programs in England to reflect better practices. We identified 58 primary and 60 secondary university PGCE programs to invite to participate in this survey. The parents of the children were also the participants on this research

After several reminders, 26 (45%) primary programs and 23 (38%) secondary program directors returned surveys. Subject/module leader surveys were returned from 12 primary programs (only 46% where there were also Program Directors returns) and 17 (74%) for secondary programs. From these 12 primary programs there were 29 subject leader responses (2-3 respondents per program) and 69 secondary subject leader responses (4-5 respondents per program). The primary leaders represented in the sample were responsible for a range of traditional subject based modules as well as some integrated modules, including some with an inclusion module. The secondary leaders represented in the sample were also responsible for a whole range of subject specialisms.

Interviews: design, development and analyses

The open access online survey software program, Lime survey, was used rather than a paper interviews to maximize the response rate ...