MODULE DESCRIPTION:

The purpose of this module is to assist pre-service candidates, in-service teachers, school administrators, parents and other interested persons in exploring the unique qualities of leadership demonstrated by pioneers in special education.  It is designed to help educators of students examine the lives and works of pioneers in special education and encourage students to identify key qualities of leadership these pioneers shared in common and apply these qualities to current leaders and those individuals with potential for leadership.

This module will address competencies in knowledge, performances, and dispositions in alignment with Standard #1 of the IPSB approved standards (1998).  It also aligns with INTASC new teacher training Principle #9 and Principle #10.

The focus of this module is to identify pivotal pioneers in the history of special education and discover common characteristics of leadership and progressive thinking as we develop new leadership in the field.

Why Study History?

Peter N. Stearns, historian and Provost at George Mason University, offers an interesting leadership viewpoint that explores several parameters concerning the importance of history,  how leaders affect change, for the good or the bad, and why we should study history.  (For the entire discussion, please go to http://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/WhyStudyHistory.htm and read his viewpoints as they apply to traditional study of history, presented on the American Historical Association’s electronic journal website.)   Dr. Stearns is a frequent contributor to scholarly works in history and has a special interest in leadership and its historical effect.  His broad spectrum viewpoints apply to history of many disciplines, including special education.

What we teach at all levels in education is being examined under more demanding microscopes.  The importance of history is being questioned, as there is pressure to use instructional time for standards more suited to present day needs.  The Indiana Professional Standards Board wisely understood why the History of Special Education is an important area that must be examined for several reasons.  Using the criteria of Stearns, we can justify why closely examining trailblazers can teach us and point the way to the future.

History helps us understand people and societies.  This is probably the bedrock of what Stearns believes as we think about special education and disability.  Understanding people and their needs and how society worked toward meeting these needs, or tried to ignore these needs, is a central behavior that will always be with us.   We must be able to chronicle where we have been in order to plan where we are going.  Equally, what about the people who led us?  What understanding about them will help us in how we identify and encourage those with the capabilities to make change?  Without the understanding history affords us, movement forward will be slower and less efficient.  We learn from both our mistakes and our successes.  Stearns quotes, “The past causes the present, and so the future. Any time we try to know why something happened—whether a shift in political party dominance in the American Congress, a major change in the teenage suicide rate, or a war in the Balkans or the Middle East—we have to look for factors that took shape earlier. “  The same holds true in the area of special education and rights of those with disabilities. 

History provides the only extensive materials available to study the human condition.  It also presents a universality of cause and effect over a long period of time.  We can all learn from historical change that proved lasting and learn the elements that improved the human condition in a positive, powerful way.  Along with this, history provides us with a moral compass, led by exceptional people, who had vision of what was needed and how it could be accomplished.

Stearns suggests that there are historical happenings that strike like lightning.  These are sudden events that profoundly affect how we think and how we live.  Sometimes they are so sudden that we remember what we were doing when the event happened, such as the death of President Kennedy, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the catastrophe at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  As we study these events over time, we can learn so much from many parameters.   This can also apply to the study of the history of special education and disability.

In summation, Stearns writes this:

“Historical study, in sum, is crucial to the promotion of that elusive creature, the well-informed citizen. It provides basic factual information about the background of our political institutions and about the values and problems that affect our social well-being. It also contributes to our capacity to use evidence, assess interpretations, and analyze change and continuities. No one can ever quite deal with the present as the historian deals with the past—we lack the perspective for this feat; but we can move in this direction by applying historical habits of mind, and we will function as better citizens in the process...”

Further Reading suggested by Stearns

Holt, Thomas C. Thinking Historically: Narrative, Imagination, and Understanding. New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1990.

Howe, Barbara. Careers for Students of History. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1989.

Hexter, J. H. The History Primer. New York: Basic Books, 1971.

Gagnon, Paul, ed. Historical Literacy. New York: MacMillan, 1989.

Oakeshott, Michael. On History. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes and Noble, 1983.

Stearns, Peter N. Meaning over Memory: Recasting the Teaching of History and Culture. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

INSTRUCTIONAL PROFICIENCIES:

IPSB Standards for Teachers of Students with Exceptional Needs:

Standard #1 

The educator of students with exceptional needs is well versed in the history, philosophy, and foundations of special education as well as the applicability of current laws and contemporary issues in the field and uses this knowledge to enhance education opportunities for all students.

Performance #2  - communicates and models a philosophy of special education that embodies advocacy and self-reflection.

Knowledge’s #1 – understands the theories and philosophies that provide the basis for special education

Disposition #1 -  values and respects the historical and philosophical framework of special education.

INSTRUCTIONAL OUTCOMES:

Upon completion of this module the individual will be able to:

• Identify pivotal historical leaders in special education and trace their contribution to present practice;
   

• Examine qualities of leadership, especially in the application of theory, scholarship, practice, and supported change;
   
• Synthesize components of leadership of pioneers, apply these components to contemporary persons in the field (or in a case study), and defend his/her your choices by comparing their knowledge, performances, and dispositions to those of the pioneer leaders as well as selected current leaders.

INSTRUCTIONAL EVENTS

1.      Read the module narrative.

Organize this information and reflect on both similarity and difference in the leadership characteristics demonstrated in the featured pioneers:

• childhood and early years

• influence of family and extended family

• temperament of the pioneers

• vision and influence of the pioneers

• accomplishments of the pioneers