In the era of inclusive education, every educator can expect to have students with disabilities in their classroom. Unfortunately, preservice teachers who are not specifically pursuing special education licensure are often only expected to take one course focused on teaching students with disabilities. Given the increased emphasis on less…

This article illustrates a work in progress about why and how a small yet growing network of international scholars have forged alternative frameworks for understanding what is termed "disability." First, we discuss the definition of disability calling attention to its social contexts, including schools, and the hegemony of special education.…

Throughout the 19th century, the discourse on idiocy was among the most substantial and celebrated fields of knowledge about human nature; yet it is mostly forgotten or ignored by scholars today. Once science could identify the truly retarded individual from within the confused concept of idiocy, it is thought, these subjects could finally be…

In 1994, Brunei Darussalam adopted an inclusive educational policy and began a number of educational reforms to support the implementation of inclusion within the regular mainstream education system. These reforms include teacher education, which has witnessed the establishment and expansion of training and education opportunities for teachers to…

The authors consider the future of special education personnel preparation by responding to an overarching question: "What frameworks might teacher educators use as a basis to promote special education teacher effective performance now and in the future?" In answering this question, they summarize current trends in the context of…

This article analyzes the current challenges facing inclusive education in Latin America and explores some possible solutions. The author suggests that teachers play a key role in providing education that is inclusive for all. In Latin America, today, however, inclusive education often does not respond to the needs of children and young people,…

This article examines teacher education programmes in the Arab region and the extent to which teachers are prepared to work in inclusive education settings. In the Arab world, the emerging area of inclusive education faces various challenges, among them a teaching force that is not adequately prepared to teach all children. This challenge arises…

An adapted version of the "Teacher/Staff Skillstreaming Checklist" was used to determine the level, type, and area of social skills instruction provided to general and special education teachers. Nine universities participated in the study in which facilitators advertised the adapted questionnaire to licensed general and special education teachers…

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between special education confidence, knowledge, and selected demographics of agricultural education student teachers in the American Association of Agricultural Education southern region. A significant, low, positive association existed between total confidence and knowledge of providing…

To determine the extent to which knowledge of evidence-based reading instruction and mathematics is assessed on licensure tests for prospective special education teachers, this study drew on information provided by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and National Evaluation Systems (now…

In this paper, we review various challenges in regard to educating children with and without disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. The challenges discussed include (1) biased assessment that results in mis- or overrepresenting CLD students in special education, (2) difficulty distinguishing between disability…

As teacher quality becomes a central issue in discussions of children's literacy, both researchers and policy makers alike express increasing concern with how teachers structure and allocate their lesson time for literacy-related activities as well as with what they know about reading development, processes, and pedagogy. The authors examined the…

The issue of special needs and the English Language Learner is a complex and complicated one. It involves all of the issues that education for children with special needs has, such as legal issues, psychological issues, parental involvement issues, and the involvement of general education classroom teachers. These issues are intertwined with those…

West Virginia University's five-year preservice teacher education program prepares general education teachers for students with special needs. Using a strand approach, special education learning outcomes and competencies have been incorporated into core education courses. A survey of 72 program participants and 11 faculty members indicates…

This final report discusses the activities and outcomes of the early intervention interdisciplinary preservice program at the University of Oregon. This master's degree program used both "measurement of" and "reflection about" preservice efforts to address important questions regarding program effectiveness and identify…