The Conceptual and Disciplinary Segregation of Disability: a Phenomenography of Science Education Graduate Student Learning

Science teacher education has long sought to educate new science teachers to more fully understand “Science-for-all” and prepare them to effectively navigate diverse contexts. To adopt this “Science-for-all” mantra, we need to address what the labeling (i.e., categorical labeling and/or mislabeling) of students with disabilities means for science teacher education. This paper provides a critical inquiry to ground the claim that disability operates subversively and unrecognized as a marker of difference similar to labels that produce exclusion in science education (e.g., race, class, and gender). Using a phenomenographic design, this research studied graduate students’ conceptualizations of disability as they progressed through the only required diversity course at a large, urban university in the American northeast. Primary data sources included in-depth, pre-/post-course interviews with supplemental data collected from biweekly course reflections. Phenomenographic data analyses addressed to what extent these graduate students embraced a disability studies perspective relative to disability—i.e., viewing disability beyond merely individual deficit. Findings suggest that the course sustained the relatively static conceptualizations about disability held by the participants related to individual deficiency rather than pushing for more critical views of disability beyond deficiency. Implications are discussed in relation to multicultural science teacher education course goals.

     

Effects of representation sequences and spatial ability on students’ scientific understandings about the mechanism of breathing

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of representation sequences and spatial ability on students’ scientific understandings about the mechanism of breathing in human beings. 130 seventh graders were assigned to two groups with different sequential combinations of static and dynamic representations: SD group (i.e., viewing static representations and then dynamic ones), and DS group (i.e., viewing dynamic representations and then static ones). Among them, 16 students (8 from each group) with different levels of prior knowledge and spatial ability were interviewed. Data sources included a spatial ability test, pre- and post-tests of scientific understandings (involving factual, conceptual, and spatial knowledge), and semi-structured interviews. The statistical results indicated that the SD sequence helped students gain significantly more factual knowledge. The significant interaction effects further suggested that while the representation sequences had no effect on students with low spatial ability, high spatial ability students in the SD group outperformed than their counterparts in DS group on the items of the conceptual and spatial knowledge. Additionally, the analysis of interviews indicated that the representation sequences could affect the foci of students’ explanations and shape their perceptions about the representations. The results suggested interplays among representation sequences, spatial ability, and students’ understandings, and provided insight into the design and arrangement of multiple representations for science learning.     

Social Competence and Temperament in Children with Chronic Orthopaedic Disability

The aim of the study was to investigate social competence in children with orthopaedic disability and its concurrent relations to child’s temperament, health condition, and maternal warmth. Participants were 68 Turkish children (mean = 5.94 years) with chronic orthopaedic disability and their mothers coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Mother ratings were used to measure social competence, temperament, general health condition, and parental warmth. The attending physician rated the severity of orthopaedic disability. Attentional focusing, emotional reactivity, and child’s sex significantly predicted social competence. Age at first operation was slightly negatively associated with reactivity. The findings revealed the importance of emotional and attentional regulation for social functioning in children with orthopaedic disability, and pointed to the susceptibility of reactivity to environmental conditions. The study suggested that social functioning of youth with orthopaedic disability might benefit from temperament-based intervention and prevention programmes.     

呐喊自由——从查泰莱男爵的残疾来看查泰莱夫人婚外恋的合理性

从三个方面来分析查泰莱夫人———康妮(Connie)是怎样在丈夫的虐待下产生了对自由生活的向往,并最终选择了最引人争议的方式———婚外恋来获得最终的解脱这一结果的合理性。     

Beautiful minds and unruly bodies: embodiment and academic identity in Still Alice and The Theory of Everything

ABSTRACT

This article explores the representation of disability and academic identity in two award-winning films: Still Alice and The Theory of Everything. Drawing on scholarship about embodiment and the ‘normal professor body’, I demonstrate how the complex images of disabled academics in these films take up and replicate (to differing extents) dominant discourses of disembodied intellectualism that shape conceptions of the professoriate. As examples of public pedagogy, these representations have significant ramifications for popular understandings of disability and higher education.     

Using Theory of Mind to Promote Conceptual Change in Science

We argue that learning science requires children to move from perceptually based representations to more abstract conceptual representations and to understand that appearance may sometimes deceive us and that the same phenomenon in the world can have more than one representation when seen from different perspectives. We also argue that the beginnings of such an epistemological perspective can be found in young children’s ability to think about the difference between their beliefs and the beliefs of others in the social domain, i.e., their Theory of Mind. We present the results of two empirical studies that show significant correlations between children’s growing Theory of Mind, developing epistemological thinking, and science learning, and suggest that Theory of Mind tasks can be used to promote conceptual change in science.     

Disability,Stigma and Otherness: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers

This qualitative study explored the perspectives of parents and teachers in the US with regard to the meaning and implications of disability in the context of schoolling, and of raising a child with a disability. The findings revealed broad conceptual differences in the perspectives of these two groups. Teachers’ beliefs were generally consistent with medical model perspectives on disability as biologically defined. Parents’ interpretations, more aligned with a sociocultural paradigm, were situated in the cultural meanings ascribed to disability and linked with issues of stigma, marginalisation and access. The findings also revealed the existence of master narratives on families of children with disabilities, entrenched in assumptions of pathological functioning and negative outcomes among these families. Implications for professional–family partnerships in the education of students with disabilities are discussed.     

Adaptation de la Perspective à une Situation Complexe par des Elèves de 9–12 ans

The research described here deals with relationships between teaching situations and pupils’ notions in the context of three dimensional geometry lessons during compulsory schooling. Specifically, ways in which 9 to 12 year old children adapt perspective drawings of a cube in two quite complex situations are looked at. These situations require that assemblies of cubes be represented with different objectives in mind. Furthermore, the situations are created at the beginning of the learning process as implemented at two different school grades. The article presents the bread range of possible types of visual representations of cube assemblies. Three ways of adapting to these situations can be picked out in terms of this classification, namely:

— successful resolution of the coordination problems posed by perspective representation of assemblies involving several cubes;

— restricted use of perspective drawings for one simple part of the assembly;

— abandonment of perspective drawings in favour of other, figurative or semi-figurative method of graphical representation.

The effect of certain features of each situation considered on pupils’ adaptation is also brought out. These features were used to favour semi-figurative techniques of representation linked to spatial orientation procedures.     

Episodic Memory: A Neglected Phenomenon in the Psychology of Education

Contemporary educational psychology has employed models of procedural and semantic (or declarative) memory, but generally it has ignored a third form of memory (i.e., episodic memory) thought by some (e.g., Tulving, 1983,1985) to be especially important for explications of human functioning. Tulving's (1983,1985) ternary theory of memory is presented, with emphasis given to the acquisition, representation, and expression of knowledge in episodic memory. I argue that studies of pupils' episodic memories, their characteristics, and their functions may enhance the power and relevance of educational psychology with respect to understanding how pupils learn from instruction in classroom contexts. A conceptual framework and possible strategies for the conduct of instructional research are described that consider pupils' episodic memories as important mediating variables in learning from teaching.     

关于残疾人高等教育形式之探析

目前,残疾人接受高等教育已经受到全社会的普遍重视.但是,采取何种形式、设置何种专业才能使残疾人获得符合他们身心特点的知识与技能,得到真正的发展,这是实施残疾人高等教育过程中,必须认真思考的问题,本文试从安置形式和专业设置两方面对残疾人高等教育形式进行分析.     

Cute,creepy and sublime unnamed childhood monstrosities

ABSTRACT

Strangers, Gods, and monsters are all names for the experience of alterity and otherness within and amongst us. We need monsters in our lives. In this paper we use philosophy as a method to explore language, developmental and cultural instabilities, and terrifying (and discursive) monstrosity located within children's literature and childhood contexts. Philosophy as a method serves as an engagement, an ethical relationship with monstrous thoughts, and as an opening to the philosophical thinking of everyday practices of childhood play (i.e., through objects, practices, language, text, and images). Alongside and through cute, creepy and sublime notions of monsters in children's literature children become monsters–monsters become children. We draw from Derrida's notions of hospitality and hostility and Deleuze and Guattari's deterritorialization of minor literature as well as from literature on monsters, monstrosities, and ugliness. We argue that different representations of childhood monstrosity can help educators and other adults to see the ‘productive’ in childhood otherness, to consider the always present ‘childhood undecidable’ (simultaneous presence of cute and creepy) and the generative in infinitely unknown and unrecognizable childhood objects and discourses.     

Parenting a Child with a Learning Disability: A Qualitative Approach

The present study describes experiences associated with parenting children diagnosed with learning disabilities. Parents whose children were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, dyslexia/language problems, and Asperger syndrome, related to poor performance at school, took part in the study. A qualitative study design was implemented, using three focus groups. The data obtained were analysed following an inductive thematic approach. Five major themes were identified: parenting emotions, diagnosis and cause, daily experiences, social relationships and concerns about the future. The parents in this study experienced a range of emotions, and assigned different explanations to the learning disability, depending on the diagnosis (attention, verbal or non-verbal). Daily experience, both at home and at school, was influenced by the child’s specific impairment. All parents, independently of the diagnosis, believe a central role is played by social relationships and expressed concerns about their child’s future development. Emotional interventions targeting these parents should take these considerations into account and address the specific type of learning disability.     

Race and ‘Disability Passing’ in a Chicago Public School Art Classroom

Race, history and visibility have a great deal to do with how disability operated socially and educationally in the Chicago public high school art classroom where I taught for ten years. I am severely near‐sighted, and I am also white, educated and often, but not consistently, able to pass for non‐disabled. A large number of my students were identified as having learning, emotional and behavioural disabilities, diagnoses which were certainly conditioned by the institution, but diagnoses which perhaps also underrepresented the amount of socially and historically occasioned impairment or debility that existed in the low‐income majority‐Black community served by my school. In this article I reflect on the overlapping social performances that occurred in terms of ‘disability passing’, a state that can characterise both hidden and exaggerated or invented impairments. My reflections examine my own individual experience in contrast to the long‐term experience of the African diaspora in and beyond the USA, in order to think about other ways to parse the complex factors determining how disability plays out in educational environments.     

Special Education as Neoliberal Property: The Racecraft,Biopolitics, and Immunization of Disability

Through the juxtaposition of 2 recent Supreme Court actions—Allston v. Lower Merion County School District (2015) and Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017)—this article argues that special education is a neoliberal property that works to recruit disability through scientific-juridical qualifications of educational life that are more likely to be available for White students who have essentialized disabilities than students of color who are ascribed disability labels. This thesis draws from a variety of theoretical perspectives—including, racecraft, biopolitics, and immunization—to formulate a crip reading of present special education policy. Although critiquing overrepresentation and disproportionality, this article also suggests a way of dialectically attenting to the uses of disability labeling toward the reciprocal production of pathological ableism and biopolitical racism. Moving from a racecraft of disability labeling to a biopolitics of special education, this article concludes by arguing that Whiteness recruits disability into its self-enclosed and propertied boundaries with the effect that educational life is contractually immunized against communal obligations to human difference. James Baldwin’s (1963/1998), “A Talk to Teachers,” critically inflects this conclusion and also motivates the article’s analytical excursion into the troubling nexus of special education policy, neoliberalism, and Whiteness.     

The Pathic Model of Disability: Identity,Moral Force and the Politics of Pain

Critics of the ‘strong social model’ of disability developed in the U.K. commonly claim that it focuses too one-sidedly on social oppression, thereby neglecting the role of individual impairment. In this theoretical article, we contrast that model with what we call the ‘pathic model’ of disability, which we characterise through the case of people living with chronic pain in the U.S.A. We argue that the difference between these two models is due to differing socio-political contexts and national policies concerning welfare and addiction as well as normative assumptions regarding the moral force of focusing on individual pain. We conclude that the political goals of proponents of the ‘pathic model’ present a challenge to the presumption that the ‘strong social model’ is the most or only politically effective way to rectify disability-related social oppression.     

Pupils’ voices about citizenship education: comparative case studies in Finland,Sweden and England

The aim of the article is to present and discuss a study in which Finnish, English and Swedish pupils’ understanding of citizenship education with regard to: (a) political literacy; and (b) attitudes and values was explored. The study was a cross‐national, multiple case study and data were collected through 18 focus group dialogues with 15‐year‐old pupils. Results showed that English pupils were much more well‐informed about rights and responsibilities than their Nordic counterparts and also more skilled rhetorically, but appeared less accustomed to open and confident relationships with adults than the Swedish pupils. Finnish pupils did not seem to be encouraged to talk; instead they kept their thoughts and feelings to themselves. One conclusion, among others, was that the study illuminates conditions for the development of a so‐called key competence – i.e., ‘interpersonal, intercultural, social and civic competence’.     

Inquiry as a Members’ Phenomenon: Young Children as Competent Inquirers

Understanding children’s inquiry often draws on exogenous understanding (i.e., scientists’ inquiry, classroom expectations) without first understanding inquiry in children’s everyday lives. In contrast, we examine young children’s inquiry in their families to better understand their competent engagement in inquiry. Specifically, we develop an endogenous representation of inquiry as a members’ phenomenon (IMP)—a representation formulated by participants in the course of their own activity. IMP highlights key moments in inquiry—beginning by orienting to inquiry, making progress by drawing on sensemaking resources, and orienting to ending inquiry. This representation also allows us to recognize evidence of young children’s competence in managing interactional, affective, and epistemic challenges inherent in these key moments of inquiry; the diverse array of sensemaking resources through which children address those challenges; and a range of children’s interests and concerns addressed within their inquiry. Furthermore, IMP provides a prism for reconceptualizing learning from learners’ perspective: attending to how participants orient to a moment of inquiry, inquire together, and come to what counts to them as a satisfactory end to their inquiry. This representation of inquiry is an important step in basic learning sciences research and informative for the design of science and other domain learning environments.     

Academic Achievement Performance of University Students with Disability: Exploring the Influence of Non-academic Factors

This study examined whether: (1) the non-academic constructs of psychological well-being, motivation to learn and quality of life (QOL) explained the variance in the academic achievement of students with disability; and (2) students with a mental health disability (MHD) differed from students with other disability on academic achievement and on the aforementioned non-academic constructs. Eighty-three students with disability were administered the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, the World Health Organisation QOL questionnaire, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Grade-point average was used as the measure of academic achievement. The results showed that measures of social relationships and self-efficacy were significant explanatory variables that could clarify the variance in academic achievement. Secondly, students with MHD differed from students with other disabilities on measures of psychological health, physical health, and social relationships. The findings have consequences for learning services provided to students with disability. It highlights the importance of examining the influence of disability type on student’s cognitive and behavioural dimensions such as their motivation to learn, engagement, persistence and academic attainment.