Symposium for Scholars, Practitioners & Policy Makers
April 24 - 25, 2008
After a long history of exclusion, litigation and legislation ensured that students with disabilities would have access to a free, appropriate education. The legal safeguards and procedures that created access did not, however, guarantee excellence of educational services and student outcomes.
Now the alignment of IDEA and NCLB mandates the inclusion of students with disabilities in statewide assessments of academic achievement and their meaningful participation in the general education curriculum. These changes in policy, meant to address persistent problems of educational equity, have profound practical implications for the education of all students. 
Meanwhile scholarly inquiry into the education of students with disabilities raises exciting possibilities as well as practical challenges for both general and special educators.
It is therefore timely to consider the changing conceptions of special education. UD’s School of Education is hosting a symposium – Changing Conceptions of Special Education – to explore broad questions related to the relationship between general and special education, including:
- What theoretical, policy and/or practice perspectives have shaped the experience and structure of education for students with disabilities?
- What lines of inquiry can and do inform current thinking about special education?
- What are the most challenging, interesting and potentially fruitful areas for future inquiry into the education of students with disabilities?
The Changing Conceptions of Special Education symposium will consist of three sessions over a day and a half, each featuring paper presentations followed by intensive discussion among the presenters and other participants. Confirmed speakers include Alfredo Artiles, Mary Brownell, Mary Beth Bruder,Sherman Dorn, Doug Fuchs, and Maggie McLaughlin. Other participants include Candace Cortiella, Lou Danielson, Deb Ziegler, Daryl Mellard, and Michael Gamel-McCormick.
Changing Conceptions of Special Education is made possible with support from the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities as well as from these other units in UD’s College of Human Service, Education and Public Policy: the Center for Disabilities Studies, the Department of Individual and Family Studies, and the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.