Scot Danforth – författare

The first biography of one of the founders of the disability rights movement, An Independent Man chronicles the life of an activist who reimagined the meaning of equality and inspired generations of reformers.Before Jonas Salk's vaccine, polio was a social death sentence. The disabled were expected to disappear into their limitations, pitied by those around them. This might have been the story of Ed Roberts, paralyzed and consigned to sleep in an iron lung. But Roberts insisted on what all people deserve: a full life.Scot Danforth deftly captures Roberts's adventurous personality and radical vision, chronicling his life from his student activist days at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s to his career highlights of establishing the pioneering Center for Independent Living and directing California's Department of Rehabilitation. By insisting that disabled persons are valuable members of society, and by translating his ideas into action, Roberts laid the ground for the Americans with Disabilities Act and the ongoing movement for equality.

Disability and the Politics of Education: An International Reader is a rich resource that deals comprehensively with the many aspects of the complex topic of disability studies in education. For nearly two decades, global attention has been given to education as a human right through global initiatives such as Education for All (EFA) and the Salamanca Statement. Yet according to UNESCO, reaching the goals of EFA remains one of the most daunting challenges facing the global community. Today, millions of the world’s disabled children cannot obtain a basic childhood education, particularly in countries with limited resources. Even in the wealthiest countries, many disabled children and youth are educationally segregated from the nondisabled, particularly if they are labeled with significant cognitive impairment. International agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank have generated funds for educational development but, unfortunately, these funds are administered with the assumption that «west is best», thereby urging developing countries to mimic educational policies in the United States and the United Kingdom in order to prove their aid-worthiness. This «McDonaldization» of education reproduces the labeling, resource allocation, and social dynamics long criticized in disability studies. The authors in this volume explore these subjects and other complexities of disability and the politics of education. In doing so, they demonstrate the importance and usefulness of international perspectives and comparative approaches.

With the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975, the learning disability construct gained national legitimacy. Feeding that political achievement, behind the very idea of a learning disability, was the development of a science that blended neurology, psychology, and education. This book tracks the historical creation of the science of learning disabilities, beginning with the clinical research with brain-injured World War I soldiers conducted by German physician Kurt Goldstein. It traces the growth of the two primary research traditions, the psycholinguistic theory of Samuel Kirk and the movement education of Newell Kephart, exploring how specific scientific orientations, theories, and practices led to the birth of the learning disability in the United States.

Inclusive education continues to grow in popularity and acceptance in the United States. However, most teachers – general and special educators – are poorly prepared to be successful in inclusive classrooms and schools. Undoubtedly, the challenge to professionals involves the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. But inclusion requires far more. It calls upon educators to trouble everything they think they know about disability, to question their deepest ethical commitments, to take up the work of the Disability Rights Movement in the public schools, and to leap headlong into the deepest waters of the rich craft tradition of inclusive teaching. This book offers educators the guidance and resources to become great inclusive educators by engaging in a powerful process of personal and professional transformation.

Inclusive education continues to grow in popularity and acceptance in the United States. However, most teachers – general and special educators – are poorly prepared to be successful in inclusive classrooms and schools. Undoubtedly, the challenge to professionals involves the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. But inclusion requires far more. It calls upon educators to trouble everything they think they know about disability, to question their deepest ethical commitments, to take up the work of the Disability Rights Movement in the public schools, and to leap headlong into the deepest waters of the rich craft tradition of inclusive teaching. This book offers educators the guidance and resources to become great inclusive educators by engaging in a powerful process of personal and professional transformation.

Edited by the leading scholars in the field, Vital Questions Facing Disability Studies in Education provides an overview and introduction to the growing field of disability studies in education, including the application of the interdisciplinary field of disability studies to inclusive education, teacher education, educational research, and educational policy development. While traditional special education research has focused on developing interventions aimed at increasing students’ functional capacities, disability studies scholars have asked provocative and probing questions about how communities and schools can value, include, and nurture disabled persons. This second edition continues the emphasis of the first edition on the central questions that drive this critical field of inquiry and social action, while broadening its scope to more fully address international educational issues. The first edition of this text has been widely adopted in undergraduate and graduate courses in disability studies and inclusive education.

This book is a true story of one family’s journey into inclusive education. Having previously been told that her son Benny had "failed to function" in two exclusionary special education classrooms in New York City, Berman’s family set off in search of a school where Benny would be accepted for who he was, while having the opportunity to grow and flourish academically, socially, and emotionally alongside his brother, Adam. Connor’s interest was piqued when Berman shared her desire to document the ways in which the new school community had supported Benny throughout the years. Together, they thought, surely other teachers, school and district level administrators, parents of children with and without disabilities, teacher educators, and student teachers, could learn from such a success story?The result of their collaboration is this book in which Berman skillfully narrates episodes across time, describing ways in which children, teachers, educational assistants, parents, and a principal came to know Benny—developing numerous and often creative ways to include him in their classrooms, school, and community. Connor’s commentaries after each chapter link practice to theory, revealing ways in which much of what the school community seems to "do naturally" is, in fact, highly compatible with a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) approach to inclusive education. By illuminating multiple approaches that have worked to include Benny, the authors invite educators and families to envision further possibilities within their own contexts.

This book is a true story of one family’s journey into inclusive education. Having previously been told that her son Benny had "failed to function" in two exclusionary special education classrooms in New York City, Berman’s family set off in search of a school where Benny would be accepted for who he was, while having the opportunity to grow and flourish academically, socially, and emotionally alongside his brother, Adam. Connor’s interest was piqued when Berman shared her desire to document the ways in which the new school community had supported Benny throughout the years. Together, they thought, surely other teachers, school and district level administrators, parents of children with and without disabilities, teacher educators, and student teachers, could learn from such a success story?The result of their collaboration is this book in which Berman skillfully narrates episodes across time, describing ways in which children, teachers, educational assistants, parents, and a principal came to know Benny—developing numerous and often creative ways to include him in their classrooms, school, and community. Connor’s commentaries after each chapter link practice to theory, revealing ways in which much of what the school community seems to "do naturally" is, in fact, highly compatible with a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) approach to inclusive education. By illuminating multiple approaches that have worked to include Benny, the authors invite educators and families to envision further possibilities within their own contexts.

Becoming a Great Inclusive Educator, Second Edition offers educators the guidance and resources to become great inclusive educators by engaging in a powerful process of personal and professional transformation.　 Inclusive education continues to grow in popularity and acceptance in the United States. But most teachers – general and special educators – are poorly prepared to be successful in inclusive classrooms and schools. Undoubtedly, the challenge to professionals involves the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. But inclusion requires far more. It calls upon educators to trouble everything they think they know about disability, to question their deepest ethical commitments, to take up the work of the Disability Rights Movement in the public schools, and to leap headlong into the deepest waters of the rich craft tradition of inclusive teaching.

Disrupting Schools: The Institutional Conditions of Disordered Behaviour represents an applied sociological address to the intractable patterns of educational exclusion of students diagnosed with "emotional and behavioural disorders." Starting with the finding that these students commonly share educational trajectories signposted by critical incidents and alienation, this book seeks a scientific solution to this problem via a more reflexive way of understanding these students’ practices in situ—in order to avoid critical incidents and foster inclusion. Pursuing this logic, Disrupting Schools uses Bourdieu’s theorising of practice and Sacks’ Membership Categorisation Analysis and Conversation Analysis to prise open the epistemological dynamics of exclusion by forensically dissecting an incident of classroom violence leading to exclusion. This produces the discovery that institutional conditions operating within teacher-student interactions ensure, via psychologically informed knowledge construction practices, the non-conscious substitution of reflexive understanding for a symbolic violence that underwrites both critical incidents and exclusion. The discovery unlocks the possibility of systemic inclusion based on a consciously controlled reflexive understanding suggested by these findings.

Disrupting Schools: The Institutional Conditions of Disordered Behaviour represents an applied sociological address to the intractable patterns of educational exclusion of students diagnosed with "emotional and behavioural disorders." Starting with the finding that these students commonly share educational trajectories signposted by critical incidents and alienation, this book seeks a scientific solution to this problem via a more reflexive way of understanding these students’ practices in situ—in order to avoid critical incidents and foster inclusion. Pursuing this logic, Disrupting Schools uses Bourdieu’s theorising of practice and Sacks’ Membership Categorisation Analysis and Conversation Analysis to prise open the epistemological dynamics of exclusion by forensically dissecting an incident of classroom violence leading to exclusion. This produces the discovery that institutional conditions operating within teacher-student interactions ensure, via psychologically informed knowledge construction practices, the non-conscious substitution of reflexive understanding for a symbolic violence that underwrites both critical incidents and exclusion. The discovery unlocks the possibility of systemic inclusion based on a consciously controlled reflexive understanding suggested by these findings.

Teachers are increasingly challenged by dilemmas of practice as they negotiate their commitments to equity for students from historically marginalized communities, including students with disabilities, against the demands of their school settings. This book seeks to understand the ways in which teachers’ engagements with their schooling contexts evoke varied forms of inclusive practice. It narrates the experiences of seven novice teachers who entered the field deeply committed to inclusive practice. It documents their conflicts, joys and struggles within the collectivities in which they were embedded. In doing thus, the book discloses the many unpredictable trajectories of practice that encompass the complex work of teaching for inclusion.

Research related to transition and support needs for autistic adults remains limited. The purpose of this study was to understand the hopes, dreams, aspirations, challenges, and lived experiences of autistic adults. Academic literature has largely emphasized autism as a medical deficit, and use of first-person narratives to understand needs of people on the autism spectrum is rare. To fill this gap, this narrative study was conducted through a social model of disability lens and centered voices of autistic individuals. This research recognized that only someone who is autistic can be considered a true expert on autism; thus, it is imperative researchers consult with and collaborate with autistic individuals to develop the most useful support services possible. By including autistic people in research design, implementation, and support services, academics and therapists can learn from the neurodivergent about problems that the social and cultural worlds present them with, thereby moving toward a more socially just society. This study included both academic literature and autobiographies written by autistic authors. The coauthor in this study is also an autistic adult who presented his life experiences for a central narrative. In contrast to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which conceptualizes autism as a list of deficits, a number of powerful themes emerged from analysis of autistic authors’ lives: Isolation, Influence of Parents, Differences in Needs: Education and Employment, Empowerment, and Relationships. These themes were contextualized via theories of neurodiversity paradigm, monotropism theory, and the double empathy problem, to better understand autistic experiences and needs. “Mathur and Valerius provide an articulate view into the lived experiences of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. As an ABA practitioner and scholar, it made me think deeply about how clinicians may go about the implementation of compassionate ABA services. This book is a timely and significant contribution relevant for anyone with that goal in mind.”—Adel C. Najdowski, PhD, BCBA-D, Program Director, MS Applied Behavior Analysis, Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, California “Adam and Sneha have created a beautiful and very much-needed book. Reading this book brings me hope. While my lived experience is different than that of Adam, I see so many recurring themes in my own life and in the lives of the learners who I support. The combination of narrative and research is engaging and makes a convincing argument for qualitative, lived-experience research. This work is mirrored by current and emerging research on Community-Informed Practice and Neurodiversity Affirming Practice. It is my opinion that this book needs to be included as essential reading for any person, autistic and allistic, who interacts with autistics (which really is everyone). But this book should be included in the required reading for any person who provides support for autistics in any setting.”—Brian Middleton, M.Ed., IBA, BCBA, LBA, The “Bearded Behaviorist,” Autistic Advocate “Dr. Mathur and Mr. Valerius have crafted a critical and engaging book that amplifies the voices of autistics through vibrant qualitative research. As a psychologist, I found this to be enlightening, highly educational and a vital contribution to the literature as it addresses the lack of representation of autistic voices. It’s an insightful and useful tool and an essential addition to any clinician's library. As a mother of an autistic child and consumer of ABA services, this encouraging book resonates with me on a personal level, and I believe it is required reading for anyone who loves, works with and supports autistics, particularly if ABA is part of their journey.”—Madeeha Mir, Ph.D., Counseling Psychologist and Instructor, New York University

The essays in Sam Pickering’s new collection sing with thoughtful observations on life, death, love, and literature. Whether attending a reunion at Sewanee, cruising the Caribbean, wander­ing the streets of Storrs, Connecticut, or rambling through Nova Scotia, Pickering is able to work a quotation, insight, or reminiscence into almost every page. His collection sparks with copious observations from other writers and books that he’s devoured through the years. One of the many joys in Happy Vagrancy is finding a new author or essay hiding in the deep foliage of Pickering’s prose. He delivers his insights with humor, wit, and a keen eye for the ordinary wonders that surround us.Many of the essays touch on death and the dying, and nothing escapes description and fascination whether profound or seemingly less so: the death of a dear friend or two fledgling cardinals blown from a nest in the backyard and now covered with “periwinkle at the corner of the yard.” During a walk down a country lane, the names of flowers, birds, and bugs fill the page. Even in a meadow buzzing with life, there are reminders of our mortality and brief light too soon gone—and they remind us to read, think, and live with gusto and love.