Beyond Equality in the American Classroom

The Case for Inclusive Education

By (author) Eric Shyman Professor of Special Education, Dowling College, NY

Publication date:

18 July 2013

Length of book:

374 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

235x162mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739177495

Beyond Equality in the American Classroom: The Case for Inclusive Education addresses the basis of inclusive education for students with exceptionalities from the perspective of social justice and scholarship-activism. Drawing on historical, legislative, and philosophical references, this book builds the case for including individuals with exceptionalities in general education classrooms as a matter of social justice and civil rights. Providing a comprehensive foundation for exploring the concept of inclusive education scholastically, Shyman provides a well-organized and clearly-structured treatise for both the philosophy of inclusive education as well as a means of putting inclusive education into practice in American schools. With pointed critiques of the current trend of standardization and traditionalization in the current educational climate, a new philosophy for addressing inclusive education is put forth. The book is both readable and scholastically legitimate, and can be adapted for personal academic use or as a teaching tool for undergraduate or graduate classes in the areas of education, philosophy and sociology.

Introduction
Part I. Establishing the Historical Perspective of Exceptionality
Chapter 1: Conceptions of Exceptionality: Biblical Times through the Middle Ages
Chapter 2: The Educational Development of Children with Exceptionalities: 18th Century and Beyond
Chapter 3: Social and Legislative Histories of People with Exceptionalities
Chapter 4: Legitimizing the Field through Formal Thinking: The Development of Studies in Exceptionality
Part II. Establishing the Philosophical Perspective of Exceptionality
Chapter 5: The Western Philosophers
Chapter 6: Exploring Concepts of Justice
Chapter 7: Contextualizing Social Justice within Exceptionality
Part III. Establishing the Polemic for Inclusive Education
Chapter 8: The Development of the Concept of Inclusion
Chapter 9: Implementing Inclusive Education in Schools with a Positive Trajectory
Chapter 10: Addressing the Challenges of the Treatise

This wonderful book provides a compelling narrative of the historical and philosophical roots of inclusive education and contextualizes that history in a framework of social justice and critical pedagogy. Part 1 provides a historical perspective on exceptionality, including a nice chapter describing conceptions of exceptionality during biblical times and additional chapters focusing on legal developments and the genesis of exceptionality as a legitimate academic discipline. Part 2 begins with an overview of Western philosophical thought and its various connections to the study of exceptionality. Two important chapters focus on the study of exceptionality within a framework of social justice and the author's recommendations for utilizing that framework to advance the discipline and improve practice. Curiously, Shyman (Dowling College) makes only brief mention of how critical theory has been and continues to be employed in the theoretical study of exceptionality as well as applied innovations to improve practice. Readers would benefit from some foundational knowledge of critical theory concepts such as hegemony and the hidden curriculum. Overall, this is a wonderful book of great value to scholars of exceptionality as well as advanced practitioners. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections.