Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T11:20:14.096Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Historicising the Integration Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Dianne Snow
Dianne Snow*
Affiliation:
Education Department, University of Auckland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gow, L., Snow, D., Ball, J. & Hall, J., The Integration of Disabled Students in Australia. Report to the Commonwealth Schools Commission on Integration in Australia. University of Wollongong, NSW, 1987 (5 vols).Google Scholar
Tomlinson, S., A Sociology of Special Education, RKP, London, 1982 Google Scholar
Hurt, J.S., Outside the Mainstream. A History of Special Education, Batsford, London, 1988 Google Scholar
Bennison, E.A., “Before the Learning Disabled There Were Feeble-Minded Children’. In Franklin, B.M. (Ed.), Learning Disability: Dissenting Essays, Falmer Press, London, 1987, pp. 13–28.Google Scholar
On Australia see Newman, G.R., “Educational Segregation in Victoria. 1900–1968: A View from the Sociology of Deviance”, The Australian Journal of Education, 18 (1), 1974, pp. 50–67;Google Scholar
McCallum, D., “Eugenics, Psychology and Education in Australia”. In Sociology Research Group in Cultural and Educational Studies (Ed.). Melbourne Working Papers 4. Papers in Contemporary Australian Education, Culture and Politics, Melbourne University, 1982/1983, pp. 17, 33Google Scholar
Lewis, J., “So Much Grit in the Hub of the Educational Machine”. In Bessant, B. (Ed.), Mother State and Her Little Ones. Children and Youth in Australia 1860s-1930s, Centre for Youth and Community Studies, Melbourne, 1987, pp. 140–166 Google Scholar
Miller, P., Long Division. State Schooling in South Australian Society, Wakefield Press, 1986.Google Scholar
For more details on this general history see Snow, D., “The State, Youth and Schooling: The Social Construction of Studenthood in New South Wales, 1788–1948”, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wollongong, 1989, especially Chapter 8.Google Scholar
Cf Mackellar, , The Child, the Law and the State, Government Printer, Sydney, 1907, p. 44;Google Scholar
Report of the Medical Inspecting Officers, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1910, Government Printer, Sydney, 1911, pp. 61–62 Google Scholar
Report of the President of the State Children’s Relief Board for the Year 1911, Government Printer, Sydney, 1912, p. 23;Google Scholar
Report of the Principal Medical Officer, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1916, Government Printer, Sydney, 1917, pp. 54–64 Google Scholar
Report of the Principal Medical Officer, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1917, Government Printer, Sydney, 1918, p. 61.Google Scholar
Department of Public Instruction, Report Upon the Physical Condition of Children Attending Public Schools in New South Wales (With Special Reference to Height, Weight and Vision), Government Printer, Sydney, 1908 Google Scholar
Department of Public Instruction, Report Upon the Physical Condition of Children Attending Public Schools in New South Wales, Government Printer, Sydney, 1910, p.ii.Google Scholar
See evidence in D. McCallum, Op. Cit.Google Scholar
For further details see Barcan, A., A Short History of Education in New South Wales, Martindale Press, Sydney, 1965; D. Snow, “The State, Youth and Schooling”, Op. Cit.Google Scholar
During the 1890s Depression a Ministerial Directive had been issued as a means of cost-cutting, which forbad the enrolment of children under the age of five in state schools — dramatically altering the nineteenth century pattern of commencing school at the age of three or four. See Snow, D., “But They’re Only Babies”: Policies and Practice Marginalising the Very Young from NSW State Schools, 1788–1920”. In Kyle, N. (Ed.), Women as Educators in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Australia, University of Wollongong, 1989, pp. 67–84.Google Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1909, Government Printer, Sydney, 1910, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar
Report of the Director, Report of the Minister for 1910, p. 50; Miller, M., A study of Retardation in North Newtown Practice School, Government Printer, Sydney, 1910 Google Scholar
Chief Inspector’s Report, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1912, Government Printer, Sydney, 1913, pp. 40–43 Google Scholar
Circular No. 40, “Discontinuance of Special Classes in Cases of Children 8 Years of Age and Over”, The Public Instruction Gazette, 29/12/1912, p. 196 Google Scholar
Chief Inspector’s Report, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1913, Government Printer, Sydney, 1914, pp. 33–36.Google Scholar
E.g. Report of the Inspector of Continuation Schools, Report of the Minister for 1916, p. 51; Circular No. 76, “School Progress in Relation to Age of Pupils”, The Public Instruction Gazette, 1/8/1916, p. 279 Google Scholar
NSW Department of Public Instruction, Course of Instruction for Primary Schools, Government Printer, Sydney, 1916 Google Scholar
“Report of Miss Venable Upon the Ellis Method of Teaching Reading”, The Education Gazette, 2/12/1918, 298–299 Google Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1919, Government Printer, Sydney, pp. 6, 37.Google Scholar
Report of the Medical Inspecting Officers, Report of the Minister for 1910, 59–66 Google Scholar
Report of the Principal of Sydney Teachers’ College, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1918, Government Printer, Sydney, 1919, p. 43; Report of the Medical Service, Report of the Minister for 1919, p. 17.Google Scholar
Harkness, E.B., Blaxland Progress Association to the Under Secretary and Director of Education, 22/10/1923, “Mental Defectives, 1924, 1938-1939’, 20/12798 AONSWGoogle Scholar
Hon. Sec., Springwood and District Progress Association to the Minister of Public Health, 22/11/1923, Ibid; Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1925, Government Printer, Sydney, 1926, p. 6.Google Scholar
Under Secretary to the Superintendent, Glenfield Special School, 13/11/1929, “Glenfield Special School File”, 5/1604 AONSW.Google Scholar
E.g. “Enrolment of Children in Kindergarten Classes”, The Public Instruction Gazette, 30/3/1912, p. 78 Google Scholar
“Courses Beyond the Primary”, The Education Gazette, 1/9/1924, p. 99 Google Scholar
Report of the Conference of Directors of Education, Perth, November 1924, pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
Reprinted in Tumey, C. (Ed.), Sources in Australian Education. 1788–1970. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1975, pp. 249–250 Google Scholar
Report of the Minister for 1925, 5 Google Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1929, Government Printer, Sydney, 1930, p. 12;Google Scholar
Extract from the Report of the Medical Service, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1932, Government Printer, Sydney, 1933, p. 14.Google Scholar
E.g. Board, P., “Observations of American Educational Systems”, The Public Instruction Gazette, 1905;Google Scholar
Report of the Director of Education, Report of the Minister for 1912, pp. 34–38.Google Scholar
For detailed discussion on Board’s ideas also see A.Crane, R. & Walker, W.G., Peter Board. His Contribution to the Development of Education in New South Wales. A.C.E.R., Melbourne, 1957.Google Scholar
On the history of intelligence testing see, for example Kamin, L. J., The Science and Politics of I.Q., Penguin, London, 1978;Google Scholar
Blum, J.M., Pseudoscience and Mental Ability, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1978;Google Scholar
Evans, B. & Waites, B., I.Q. and Mental Testing. An Unnatural Science and its Social History, Macmillan, London, 1981;Google Scholar
Gould, S.J., The Mismeasure of Man, Norton, New York, 1981.Google Scholar
Report of the Medical Inspecting Officers, Report of the Minister for 1910, pp. 61–62;Google Scholar
Phillips, G.E., The Sydney Teachers’ College Group Scale for Measuring the General Ability of Primary School Children, Sydney Teachers’ College, 1925; Report of the Minister for 1925, p. 6.Google Scholar
Memorandum from the Superintendent, Vocational Guidance Bureau, to the Acting Director of Education Re Appointment of Psychologists Application of Intelligence Tests, 14/12/1927, “Vocational Guidance, 1914–1915, 1918–1932”, 20/13373 AONSW; Memorandum from the Superintendent, Vocational Guidance Bureau, to the Acting Director of Education Re Phillips Tests, 28/3/1929, Ibid; Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1927, Government Printer, Sydney, 1928, pp. 6–7;Google Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1928, Government Printer, Sydney, 1929, p. 6; Research Officer to the Under Secretary, A Note Upon the Constitution of High School Classes, March 1934, Sydney High School Papers 1933–1937, “School Counsellors, 1933–1938”, 20/12665 AONSWGoogle Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1934, Government Printer, Sydney, 1935, p. 13;Google Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1935, Government Printer, Sydney, 1936, pp. 1–2, 9; “Intelligence Tests, 1935”, 20/12665 AONSW; “Intelligence Test for Primary Final and High School Entrance Candidates”, The Education Gazette, 1/9/1936, pp. 24–241;Google Scholar
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1937, Government Printer, Sydney, 1938, pp. 6–7, 11.Google Scholar
Memorandum from the Research Officer to the Under Secretary, Mental Defectives in Canterbury-Bankstown District, 6/4/1936, “School Counsellors, 1933–1938’, 20/12665 AONSW; Principal Medical Officer to the Under Secretary, Investigation of Incidence of Retarded children in the Schools in the Balmain District, 18/12/1936, Ibid; Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1936, Government Printer, Sydney, 1937, p. 17;Google Scholar
Extract from the Report of the School Medical Service, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1938, Government Printer, Sydney, 1939, p. 21; “Intelligence Tests”, The Education Gazette, 1/10/1941, p. 1.Google Scholar
Memoradum from Chief Inspector Harkness to the Headmaster, Putney Public School, Ryde, 5/12/1940, “Opportunity 7th Classes, 1940–1941”, 20/12889 AONSW.Google Scholar
NSW Department of Education, Course of Instruction for Primary Schools, Government Printer, Sydney, 1941, Appendix, 353–35.Google Scholar