Term of Award
Fall 2011
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
Grigory Dmitriyev
Committee Member 1
Elizabeth Butterfield
Committee Member 2
Daniel Chapman
Committee Member 3
Robert Lake
Abstract
Although curriculum theorists have sought to examine the subjective practices imposed within the context of schooling in terms of class, gender, and race, the impact of disability as a social category has been absent from the field. In this work, postmodern analysis is applied to the concept of disability in field of education; first, in terms of the nature and effects of the practices educators employ to define normality, and secondly, in the constitution of the students who deviate from the norm as subjects. The techniques and procedures of investigation, surveillance, exclusion, treatment, confinement, and medicalization developed and engaged in the professional educational arena when applied to the structures of education reveal the need to recognize and reconcile the impact of the contradiction between the democratic ideals and bureaucratic practices of citizenship. Thus, this examination of the knowledge tradition which led educators and practitioners to believe in the legitimacy of their discourses thereby deconstructs these shared beliefs by exposing the inconsistencies, contradictions, and silences contained in their knowledge for the purpose of clearing the way for restructuring them in a manner that avoids unintended negative consequences. Doubts as to the legitimacy of these educational structures are evidentiary within the analysis, and present the value in recognition and reconciliation of the contradiction between the democratic ideals and bureaucratic practices of education. Special educators are charged with finding the courage and insight to deconstruct and continuously reconstruct their professional knowledge, as well as seek and bond with other committed and convicted colleagues to do the same within this scope.
Recommended Citation
Manning, Donna, "Separate but Equal? A Postmodern Analysis of Educational Structures for Individuals with Disabilities" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 563.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/563
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
