Reconceptualizing "Special Education" Curriculum in a Bachelor of Education Program: Teacher Candidate Discourses and Teacher Educator Practices

Authors

  • Luigi Iannacci Trent University School of Education and Professional Learning
  • Bente Graham Trent University School of Education and Professional Learning

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v2i2.79

Keywords:

disability, special education, teacher education, learners with special needs

Abstract

This paper identifies dominant perceptions neophyte teachers have about students with special needs and/or identified as having a learning disability in order to reconceptualize curricula that may provide them with opportunities to critically deconstruct established notions and extend practices they make available for these students. This is accomplished by examining teacher candidates’ responses to surveys they completed before and after their Bachelor of Education program as well as during focus group interviews. The paper specifically addresses how instructional practices designed for teacher candidates in “special education” classes can ensure that they remain focused on a definition of disability that reinforces and reifies deficit-oriented perspectives of disability. The researchers’ processes and critical reflections are offered as a way of demonstrating how they we were implicated in replicating dominant discourses that universalize and fossilize disability. They also offer their attempts to revise curricula and their practices in ways that address this replication.

Author Biographies

Luigi Iannacci, Trent University School of Education and Professional Learning

Luigi Iannacci has taught mainstream and special education in a range of elementary grades in Ontario. He is an associate professor in the Trent School of Education and Professional Learning, where he teaches and coordinates courses on language and literacy, supporting learners with special needs and drama. He has also taught graduate courses focussing on literacies and identities, early childhood education, curriculum evaluation and narrative inquiry. His areas of research include first and second language and literacy learning, critical multiculturalism, early childhood education, dis/ability and critical narrative research.

Bente Graham, Trent University School of Education and Professional Learning

Bente Graham has taught mainstream and special education in a range of elementary grades in Ontario. She is a former elementary school principal and is currently an instructor in the School of Education and Professional Learning, where she teaches and coordinates the Language and Literacy course and the Supporting Literacy and Learners with Special Needs course.

Downloads

How to Cite

Iannacci, L., & Graham, B. (2013). Reconceptualizing "Special Education" Curriculum in a Bachelor of Education Program: Teacher Candidate Discourses and Teacher Educator Practices. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 2(2), 10–34. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v2i2.79

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

There are no article processing or submission charges for CJDS authors.

Author(s) are not required to assign their copyright in and to their article to the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. Instead, The CJDS asks for one-time rights to print this original work.

All articles in the journal are assigned a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

Authors are asked to contact the journal Editor if they wish to post the article on any website; translate or authorize a translation of the article; copy or otherwise reproduce the article, in any format, beyond what is permitted under Canadian copyright law, or authorize others to do so; copy or otherwise reproduce portions of the article, including tables and figures, beyond what is permitted under Canadian copyright law, or authorize others to do so.

Contacting the Editor will simply allow us to track the use and distribution of your article.  We encourage use for non-commercial, educational purposes. 

Authors must provide proof of permission clearance prior to the publication of their work if they are including images or other materials that are not their own.  Keep in mind that such clearance can at times be costly, and often takes time.  The journal editor can often work with you to seek permissions if you need information, advice or assistance.