COMPETING NOTIONS OF SOCIAL-JUSTICE AND CONTRADICTIONS IN SPECIAL-EDUCATION REFORM

In the past three decades, special education has been subjected to ext ensive critique and reform of practices. These critiques have been bas ed on notions of social justice and equity. However, the field has suf fered from inadequate attention to assumptions about social justice. S ocial justice is essentially a contested concept. Rather than represen ting a unitary and universally shared concept, social justice has vari able meanings. Differing views of social justice can be seen to underl ie apparent contradictions in continuing practice in response to press ures for reform. Reforms predicated on individual rights have been und ermined by deep commitments to meritocratic practices in U.S. schools. Reforms based on more communitarian principles, however, ignore the n eed for structure and the tendency for communal values to marginalize people with disabilities. Special education reform today requires a di fferent basis in a relational definition of the self, structures to su pport the qualities of relationships, and a belief in the mutability o f social justice.