Ellen Brantlinger

Research in Special Education: Scientific Methods and Evidence-Based Practices

This article sets the context for the development of research quality indicators and guidelines for evidence of effective practices provided by different methodologies. The current conceptualization of scientific research in education and the complexity of conducting research in special education settings underlie the development of quality indicators. Programs of research in special education may be viewed as occurring in stages: moving from initial descriptive research, to experimental causal research, to finally research that examines the processes that might affect wide-scale adoption and use of a practice. At each stage, different research questions are relevant, and different research methodologies to address the research questions are needed.

Using Ideology: Cases of Nonrecognition of the Politics of Research and Practice in Special Education

This critical review focuses on 13 articles and 5 book chapters by prominent special education scholars. These authors write in support of a continuum of special education services and recommend that only the results of empirical research should inform special education practice. They also express wariness about the concept of inclusion and the direction of the inclusion movement. In touting the superiority of their own scholarship, they accuse inclusion supporters of being political, subjective, and ideological. This article challenges the supposed neutrality of the special education status quo and the moral grounding of the reviewed authors’ position. Drawing from the insights of theorists who study ideology, the analysis sheds light on the ideological nature of the reviewed authors’ own writing. The major recommendation put forth in this article is that scholars and other professionals need to think seriously about the impact of their educational preferences on the least powerful members of society if equity in schooling is to be realized.

Self-interest and Liberal Educational Discourse: How Ideology Works for Middle-Class Mothers

Middle-class mothers typically are viewed as ideal models in terms of their values and goals related to education, participation in their children’s education, and professional involvement in schooling. Yet, the results of this study indicate that educated, middle-class mothers, perceived as liberals who believe in integrated and inclusive education, still support segregated and stratified school structures that mainly benefit students of the middle class. Thompson’s (1990) modes of operation of ideology and strategies of symbolic construction shed light on the ways ideology works to establish and sustain high-income parents’ self-interested educational choices while, at the same time, allowing them to maintain a liberal image. The study illustrates how ideology allows parents to bridge disparate streams of thought and salve the dissonance that results from the contradiction between their desired liberal identity and class positionality.

Confounding the Needs and Confronting the Norms An Extension of Reid and Valle's Essay

This article expands the ideas presented in Reid and Valles essay by further exploring the construct of normality and its implications for children in schools. It examines the reasons for the nature of current school policy and practice by explicating who benefits and who loses from typical school structures and recent national legislation. Finally, it advocates for a transformation of thinking about the purpose of schools and suggests a radical restructuring that would support social reciprocity and community.

Making Decisions About Special Education Placement: Do Low-Income Parents Have the Information They Need?:

Using the hypotheses-generating techniques of Glaser and Strauss (1967), interviews were conducted with 35 low-income parents in an attempt to ascertain their knowledge of and their feelings about the adequacy of schooling in general and special education services in particular. Thirty-six percent of the respondents had school-aged children who were receiving special education services. The majority of parents had positive feelings about special education, although parents of learning disabled students perceived their children and their childrens educational needs differently from parents of mildly mentally retarded students. Parents had given permission for special education placement, but it was found that they lacked the information essential for making informed decisions.

Importance of Experimental as Well as Empirical Qualitative Studies in Special Education

In the past few decades qualitative research has increasingly appeared in special education journals. However, much of this work falls within the parameters of producing useful technical information that can be applied to the contexts where children and adults with disabilities learn, work, and live. Experimental qualitative studies that rely on postmodern or poststructural analyses, critical theory, and narrative research with subjective personal stories seem to be considered too radical, ideological, and theoretical to make it into many special education scholarly outlets. We argue that experimental qualitative designs have much to contribute to the fields of special education and disability studies and, hence, should reach those who receive or provide services to people with disabilities.

The Conflicted Pedagogical and Curricular Perspectives of Middle-Class Mothers.

Advocates of progressive education have been frustrated by the lack of success in implementing and sustaining progressive school reform. The ideals of progressive education are associated with educated professionals and middle-class parentsespecially mothers- are influential in determining the nature of education for their children and, inadvertently, for all children. This study examines the attitudes towards schooling of middle-class, college-educated mothers in order to discern their curricular and pedagogical preferences. The findings indicate that an impediment to progressive reform is the lack of support for progressive forms of schooling among its supposed proponents, the college-educated members of the middle class. On one level middle-class parents espouse the liberal notions of open, integrated, multicultural, student-centred education that are typically associated with parents of this class. Their narratives, however, reveal an actual preference for conservative practice- for factual, tightly-s...

Low-Income Parents' Perceptions of Favoritism in the Schools

Interviewed low-income parents feel that schools favor the children of others, have negative feelings about schools, and feel powerless.

Home-School Partnerships That Benefit Children with Special Needs

Education of the Handicapped Amendments, PL99-457, which will go into effect in 1991, provides federal mandate and financial backing for comprehensive services for families of children with disabilities. In order to take advantage of the provisions of this law, professionals must be cognizant of family needs and of the ways their agencies can appropriately respond to diverse families. This article summarizes research about the effects that children with disabilities have on their families and the influences of families on childrens handicapping conditions and adjustment. The needs and situations of families of children with severe disabilities are distinguished from those whose children have schoolidentified, mild handicaps. Potential problems in expanding professional support for families are identified and guidelines are offered for effective home-school partnerships. I suggest that support systems be comprehensive, flexible, and voluntary in nature and that outcomes of programming be specified and clearly conveyed to parents. A discussion of the issues related to preparing school personnel for interactions with and programming for families is included.