(NAME-MCE) DISCARDING THE DEFICIT MODEL--- University of Miami Professor Beth Harry, writing with Janette Klingner, an associate professo

[Bill Howe]

DISCARDING THE DEFICIT MODEL

University of Miami Professor Beth Harry, writing with Janette Klingner, an
associate professor at the University of Colorado in Educational Leadership,
says the traditional model of putting resources toward determining whether
children have disabilities is often based on ambiguous criteria and has
resulted in the over-representation of black and Hispanic children in
special education classes. The intertwining of race and perceptions of
disability are so deeply embedded in our way of thinking that many people
are not even aware of how one concept influences the other. According to
Harry and Klingner, a more progressive model of identifying specific
instructional needs at early ages is beginning to emerge, posing a challenge
to the deficit approach that has prevailed for so long. Many students have
special learning needs, and many experience challenges learning school
material. But does this mean they have disabilities? Can we help students
without undermining their self-confidence and stigmatizing them with a
label? Does it matter whether we use the word disability instead of "need"
and "challenge"? Language in itself is not the problem. What is problematic
is the belief system that this language represents. Why can't we see
students' difficulties as "human variation rather than pathology"?

*http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gmzscWwHCastbsfCcWgxWMda*<http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gmzscWwHCastbsfCcWgxWMda>


-- 
Bill Howe
http://www.billhowe.org

JoIn me this summer in China - Multicultural Educators to China Summer 2007
Trip - http://billhowe.org/China2007.htm

Past-President
National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
http://www.nameorg.org