Special Education and Social Structure: The Commonality of “Exceptionality”

Abstract

Although special education classifications have been frequently divided into "subjective" and "objective" categories of disability, the dominant paradigm sees the two types of classifications as occupying opposite ends of a continuum that ranges from mild learning impairment to severe physical and mental disability. The appropriateness of the objective disability paradigm for mild learning problems was tested by correlating the prevalence of subjective and objective disability with 13 social demographic variables using the 50 states and Washington, DC as cases. Multiple regression analyses using aggregates of social variables as predictors were conducted for classifications that were significantly related to social variables. None of the objective classifications could be related to social structure, but two subjective classifications, educable mental retardation and learning disabilities, were strongly and inversely associated with socioeconomic indicators. These classifications appear to be qualitatively distinct from objective disability classifications. Policy should be changed to direct attention away from presumed deficits of individuals and toward identification and treatment of the full range of factors that may cause mild learning problems.A shift is taking place in the way special education is viewed. Previously, the development of educational programs for the handicapped was viewed This study was based on a thesis written by the first author, under the supervision of the second author, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Education at the University of Washington.

The influence of demographic, achievement and socioeconomic factors on proportions of students with disabilities

“…These findings seem to support other research which has suggested that there are really two types of students with disabilities: a) those with organic impairments, sometimes called the "hard" category; and b) those with situationally determined disabilities, sometimes referred to as the "soft" category (Noel & Fuller, 1985;Gelb & Mizokawa, 1986;Reschly, 1988a;Edgar and Hayden, 1985). Students in the second category, roughly corresponding to the 1.68 and 2.35 weighted categories in Iowa, are typically labeled mildly mentally disabled, learning disabled, or behavior disordered.…”

“…This would seem to verify conclusions of earlier research (Gelb & Mizokawa, 1986;Noel & Fuller, 1985;Reschly, 1988b;Edgar & Hayden, 1985) which has differentiated between the nature of two types of students with disabilities: those with organic or sensory impairments who would most likely be severely disabled and recognized as such in all systems and those in programs for the more mildly disabled whose impairments are relative and determined to a greater extent by judgment.…”

“…The argument has been advanced that there is a difference in the strength of the relationship between socially constructed variables and the prevalence of two general types of disabilities. Gelb and Mizokawa (1986) disabilities. This led to a conclusion by the authors that these labels are given to students in the context of social situations within schools and are not biological disorders (Gelb & Mizokawa, 1986).…”

“…Gelb and Mizokawa (1986) disabilities. This led to a conclusion by the authors that these labels are given to students in the context of social situations within schools and are not biological disorders (Gelb & Mizokawa, 1986).…”

Telling a different story: Implications of contructivism for the counselling of parents of children labelled with disabilities.

“…Disability, for many, no longer equates with tragedy, dependence and helplessness. New meanings include the notion that a disability is socially created and impairments are only construed as disabilities within a particular social, historical or material context (Tomlinson, 1995;Gelb & Mizokawa, 1986). The tragedy o f living with an impairment is in society's lack o f acceptance of individuals with certain kinds o f physical 6 or intellectual differences.…”