Special eduaction in a comparative perspective. Report no 2.

HIF-Rapport

2002:7

Special Education in a

Comparative Perspective

Report No 2

Gunnar Stangvik

Finnmark University College

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PUBLICATION NUMBER:

HiF-Rapport 2002:7

ISBN:

ISSN:

Title:

Special Education in a Comparative Perspective

Report No 2

Antall sider:

Dato:

Pris: NOK 55,- Author:

Gunnar Stangvik

Faculty:

Education and Liberal Arts

Funding institution::

The Research Council of Norway and Finnmark University College

Project:

Special Education at the Bottom Line. A Cross-Cultural Study of Special Education Practice

Summary:

This is the second of six reports from a project. This report consists of five chapters. It outlines the author's theoretical pre-knowledge of the special education issues studied in the project. The report shows that quality is a fluid concept that is difficult to grasp. The special education professional community is found to be in a state of crisis offering very divergent views of how problems should be understood and acted upon. There is no single way to define 'best practices' is found, and thus no single procedure for validating quality seems to be available. In this case a social validation procedure which utilises different techniques seems to be one viable option. By this procedure priorities of stakeholders and qualitative judgements of practices may be observed. This strategy is chosen for the project. Furthermore, a global agenda for special education has been adopted and the principle of inclusion has been written into policy documents of many nations. Social validation studies may help to understand the problems met when attempts are made to implement qualities associated with this principle.

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