Publications

Publication details [#6710]

Kliewer, Christopher and Donna Raschke. 2002. Beyond the metaphor of merger: Confronting the moral quagmire of segregation in early childhood special education. 22 pp. URL
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

Much of the literature promoting the development of nonsegregated Early Childhood Special Education programs presents school inclusion as a merger of instructional technologies born out of benevolent educational histories. We argue, however, that the metaphor of technological merger fails to confront the historical quagmire of school segregation. The history of special education as an existential location separated from regular education is indisputably mired in moral traditions of control, dehumanization, and devaluation. A critical analysis of current early childhood policy and its historical underpinnings demonstrates the need to disrupt and disengage from the trajectory of human stratification deeply embedded in U.S. schooling and the science of child development if we are to promote the full citizenship of all America's children. (Christopher Kliewer and Donna Raschke)