Essentials of Disability Studies for Special Education

          Guest session: Theorising disability, modernity and change in special education

                           Dr Michael Rasell, University of Lincoln, UK

                                        Wed 5 November 2014

This session uses sociological critiques of modernity as a way of identifying the origin and
effects of policies that have historically excluded disabled children from participation in
mainstream education and society more generally.  Particular attention will be paid to dynamics of
the clinical or medical ‘gaze’ that evolved from the fusion of industrialisation, political power
and medico-scientific advances, drawing on ideas of French social theorist Michel Foucault and
other scholars.  We will apply this analytical framework to understand the evolution of special
education in a range of contexts and options for reform within and outside existing systems.  The
main goal will be to develop a ‘deconstructionist’ approach to professional ideas about the nature
of disability and educational interventions with disabled children.

Core reading

Allan, J. (1996) ‘Foucault and Special Educational Needs: a “box of tools” for analysing children’s
experiences of mainstreaming.’  Disability & Society, 11:2: 219-233

This article considers how Michel Foucault’s ideas can be used to deconstruct approaches in special
education.  It gives a useful introduction, but could be enhanced by explicitly giving some
historical context in line with Foucault’s critique of how modernity shaped the social construction
of illness and difference.  Note that references in the article to ‘mainstreaming’ and
‘integration’ in the UK are rather outdated, reflecting the fact that the article was published
eighteen years ago.

Further reading (optional)

McIntosh, P. (2002) ‘An Archi-texture of Learning Disability Services: The use of Michel Foucault,’
Disability & Society, 17:1, 65-79

As with the Allan article, this text is a little outdated in terms of empirical content, but
provides an example of how Foucault’s ideas can be used to deconstruct policy and practice messages
surrounding people with learning disabilities

Pfahl, L. & Powell, J. (2011) ‘Legitimating school segregation. The special education profession
and the discourse of learning disability in Germany.’ Disability & Society, 26:4, 449-462

This article provides a historical overview of the professional discourses within special education
in Germany.  It takes a Foucauldian approach, although note that references to his work could be
more explicit.  Nonetheless, the article provides a good example of the discourse analysis that any
study of special education in a particular context or country should include.

Tremain, S. (2005) ‘Foucault, Governmentality and Critical Disability Theory: An Introduction’ in
S. Tremain (ed.) Foucault and the Governmentality of Disability, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, pp. 1-24, available online at http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472098764-intro.pdf [accessed
26 October 2014]

The first half of this chapter gives a good overview of Foucault’s thinking and its relevance to
disability studies.  Unfortunately both the chapter and the overall book are written in rather
complicated language, but the content is interesting.

Additional resources

O'Farrell, C. (2014) ‘Bibliography of works on Foucault and Education.’  Available online at
https://foucaultnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/foucault-ed-biblio-fn3.pdf