History & Current Forces Shaping Special Education
EDST 224
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| Course Cluster and Certificates: Disability Studies |
In the course History & Current Forces Shaping Special Education, students will critically examine how social/political forces and varying conceptions of disability have shaped special education in the United States over time. Course themes include the historical and legal context of the education of students with disabilities within public schools, the contested nature of disability labels and its effect on pedagogical methods, the racialization of high incidence disabilities in schools, and the lived experiences of students living and learning with disabilities. Students will engage in readings, film viewings, lectures, discussions, and other activities to promote their understanding of the course content. Students will complete two major assignments--an analysis of an education policy or case and its effects on students or special education processes and an in-depth interview with an individual associated with a special education program. This course is intended to prepare students to critically examine past and present special education policy and processes while imagining the possibility of what such supports could do for students in schools. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS EDST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (EDST-MN)(EDST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Sample Readings:
Harry, B. & Klingner, J. (2014). Why are so many minority students in special education: Understanding race & disability in schools. Second edition. New York: Teachers College Press.
Shakespeare, Tom (2006). Critiquing the social model in Disability rights and wrongs, NY: Routledge, pp. 266-273.
Ramanathan, A. (2008). Paved with good intentions: The federal role in the oversight
and enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Teachers College Record, 110(2), 278-321
Waitoller, F. R., & King Thorius, K. A. (2016). Cross-pollinating culturally sustaining
pedagogy and universal design for learning: Toward an inclusive pedagogy that
accounts for dis/ability. Harvard Educational Review, 86(3), 366-389.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Interview & Reflection: A goal of this course is to bridge historical analysis, theory, and understandings of students with disabilities¿ lived experiences to examine and critique special education policy in practice. This assignment will allow you the opportunity to develop a beginning understanding of the current context of special education through the lens of a student, teacher, or parent.
Special Education Policy/Problem Description & Analysis: A goal of the course is to develop your understanding of how special education has developed and evolved over the course of its history in the United States. Another goal is to help you consider how remedies designed to enhance the equitable provision of services have so often resulted in racial disparities. This assignment will be segmented such that you will first write the description of the policy/problem and then shift to the analysis towards the end of the course. There will be opportunities for feedback and support along the way. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course satisfies the Breadth Category 2 Social & Structural Analyses of Education requirement for the EDST major and minor. |
| Instructor(s): Goldberg,Gravity Times: .M.W... 10:50AM-12:10PM; Location: SCIE139; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 36 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 6 | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 6 | JR non-major: 6 | SO: 6 | FR: 6 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 7 | 1st Ranked: 3 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 2 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 0 |
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