`Throughout the book general points are given a concrete illustration by reference to specific examples of special education research. The breadth of reference is a strength of the text, with a bias towards work on deafness and hearing impairment, in which Mertens has a particular interest. Wherever such illustrations are offered, the book comes alive.... there are few sources for a wide range of short accounts of examples of the practice of research in special education. This short book is a convenient and well-organized addition to them' - Division of Educational and Child Psychology Newsletter This book explores ways to adapt research methods from other disciplines to the special education context and provides the reader with a framework for critically analyzing and conducting research in areas where people with disabilities live, learn and work. Identifying people with disabilities as heterogenous cultural groups, and including such disabilities as blindness, learning difficulties and deafness, the authors discuss the implications for planning, conducting and writing research. Topics examined include: the development of research questions; identification of special education populations; sampling issues; appropriate quantitative and qualitative techniques; interpretation issues in data analysis; and directions for future research such as early intervention and school-linked services.
The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies
In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that we are now seeing fundamental changes in the ways in which scientific, social and cultural knowledge is produced. They show how this trend marks a distinct shift towards a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying a range of features associated with this new mode - reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity - the authors illustrate the connections between these features and the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the main focus is on research and development in science and technology, the book outlines the changing dimensions of social scientific and humanities knowledge. The relations between the production of knowledge and its dissemination through education are also examined. "The New Production" of Knowledge places science policy and scientific knowledge in its broader context within contemporary societies. It will be essential reading for all those concerned with the changing nature of knowledge, the social study of science, educational systems, and with the relations between R&D and social, economic and technological development.
The authors of this volume discuss diversity issues such as admission policies and the role of ethnic studies departments, then suggest strategies for dealing with questions of racism, diversity and intercultural communication. Suggestions range from ways to improve intercultural interpersonal skills through to the broad structural changes needed if a university is to embrace its diverse population.
Argues that higher education is a moral enterprise and that, as such, it must be guided by a commitments to what is morally right and fundamentally good, not just by what is necessary in intellectual or financial endeavors.
Discusses learning right from wrong, stressing such aspects as the difference between rules and principles and the importance of an individual's rights.
This book focuses on future leadership challenges for school administrators and contains practical strategies for improving decision making skills. The book concisely summarizes the contemporary views of leadership and decision making and then reveals the kinds of problems schools will face as we enter the 21st century. All three authors are former school administrators and speak in concrete terms from many years of experience. Specific direction is provided on how administrators can use creative thinking to solve their problems.
This extraordinary book can be read on several levels. primarily, it is the story of Joseph Jacotot, an exiled French schoolteacher who discovered in 1818 an unconventional teaching method that spread panic throughout the learned community of Europe. Knowing no Flemish, Jacotot found himself able to teach in French to Flemish students who knew no ......
