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Historicising the Integration Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Dianne Snow
Dianne Snow*
Affiliation:
Education Department, University of Auckland
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Extract

The history of special education is conceived within the integration debate in a way which lends credibility to two broad claims. The first is that governments have been lax in providing educational facilities for children with disabilities, while the second comprises an argument for shifting definitional control of the notion of ‘disability’ from the medical to the educational arena. The recent Report to the Australian Schools Commission on Integration in Australia exemplifies this stance by pointing to the initial reluctance of governments to assume responsibility for educating children with special needs, followed by their eventual involvement in establishing segregated educational facilities. With segregated schooling becoming the norm, the problem now confronting educators is how to integrate these students and their supporting resources into the regular school system.

Type
Research Article
Information
Australasian Journal of Special Education , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , January 1990 , pp. 28 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © The Australian Association of Special Education 1990

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