The text examines current practice in special education from a variety of metatheoretical perspectives: functionalism, interpretivism, radical structuralism, and radical humanism. Part 1 deconstructs the professions by showing how they are undermined by postmodern theories of knowledge, and proposes pragmatism as a method for reconstructing the profession of education. Part 2 describes special education, disability, and social justice from a variety of modern perspectives. Part 3 presents alternative modern and postmodern ways of reframing the problem of school failure, and proposes a new organizational form for schools that, informed by pragmatism, would enable a critical reconstruction of special education, public education, and contemporary society.
- ISBN10 0807734101
- ISBN13 9780807734100
- Publish Date 1 March 1995 (first published 1 January 1995)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 4 November 2003
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Teachers' College Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 312
- Language English