Ideology and the Politics of (In)Exclusion

The Editor: Linda Ware received her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Kansas. She is Associate Professor and head of the special education program at City College-City University of New York. She has held visiting appointments at Syracuse University and The University of Illinois-Chicago in the Department of Disability and Human Development. Her former appointments were in teacher education programs in both general and special education. Most recently, her publications have appeared in Hypatia: The Journal of Feminist Philosophy and the Journal of Teacher Education.

«‘Ideology and the Politics of (In)Exclusion’ is a refreshing volume that troubles the too-easy ethical positions around inclusive schooling. The volume makes apparent the exclusions accompanying popular inclusion rhetoric. In the effort to inspire continuous conversations within a more broadly conceived discursive community, the editor and contributors have provided turgid, new grounds for honoring the paradoxes of schooling and engaging the complexities of life. This is an overdue ice-breaker.» (Bernadette Baker, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison)«Linda Ware and her colleagues embrace disability, listen to the politics of disability, and pose troubling questions about professional practice. At a time when disability is becoming ever more medicalized and personalized, the authors of ‘Ideology and the Politics of (In)Exclusion’ remind us that prevailing, professional conceptions of disability always serve a regulatory function, rather than a liberatory one. The contributing authors for this volume, representing diverse international contexts, are at once provocative, critical, theoretical, and engaged in the everyday worlds of disability and education. This is the most clearly political analysis of special education and inclusion yet available in print.» (Douglas Biklen, Professor, University of Syracuse, Syracuse, New York)«Dr. Ware and her colleagues provide a thorough critique of the limits of special education, the reality of (in)exclusion – and with subtlety – introduces readers to understanding the critical context for undertaking disability studies in education.» (David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder, Disability Studies Program, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL)

• Contents: Ellen Brantlinger: Ideologies Discerned, Values Determined: Getting Past the Hierarchies of Special Education – Julie Allan: The Aesthetics of Disability as a Productive Ideology – Roger Slee: Meaning in the Service of Power – Len Barton: The Politics of Special Education: A Necessary or Irrelevant Approach? – Sally Tomlinson: Race and Special Education – Keith Ballard: Ideology and the Origins of Exclusion: A Case Study – Marit Stromstad: Accounting for Ideology and Politics in the Development of Inclusive Practice in Norway – Kari Nes: Quality versus Equality? Inclusion Politics in Norway at Century’s End – Lous Heshusius: Special Education Knowledges: The Inevitable Struggle with the «Self» – Jude MacArthur: Tensions and Conflicts: Experiences in Parent and Professional Worlds – Linda Ware: The Politics of Ideology: A Pedagogy of Critical Hope.