Social Justice And Special Needs Students

The special education programs in the United States have been designed to help children with special needs learn easier and fit in better with the education program. Unfortunately, many minority students get caught up in the mix and don’t get the proper attention they deserve. Furthermore, minority students are seriously over-represented in the educational programs. Many minority students are misdiagnosed and put into special education programs when in fact; they do not have a learning disability. This has become a growing problem in this country because it is seen as the easy way out. Schools all over the U.S. are doing this in order to not have to properly test and evaluate students for learning problems.

Social work is based on respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all people as expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948) It is therefore of paramount importance that a social work professional should work towards promoting the best interests of individuals and groups in society. I very much recognize the contribution that social work brings to inclusion having worked alongside social workers during the course of my shadowing placement. I possess a real commitment to promote equality which I have had the pleasure of doing in a multitude of different roles. From academic journals as well as my lecture notes I now appreciate the central importance of using the fundamental principles of human rights and equality to underpin my practice, and the inherent need to promote justice in relation with the people I will work.

Special education is a relatively new concept in education. The question is why? Although, the Federal Government required all children to attend school since 1918, this did not apply to students with disabilities. Many state laws gave school districts the ability to deny access to individuals they deem “uneducable.” The term “uneducable” varied from state to state, school to school, and even individual to individual. If students were accepted into the school, they were placed in regular classrooms with their peers with no support or in classrooms that were not appropriate to meet their needs. This started to change with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The lawsuit Brown vs the Board of Education sued to end segregation of public schools laid the ground work for Individuals with Disabilities Act. The next major impact in education was the enactment of Elementary and Secondary Act signed into effect by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The purpose of this law was to provide fair and equal access to education for all, established higher standards, and mandated funds for professional development, resources for support education programs, and parent involvement. Under this law, programs like Head Start were created and celebrated their 50th anniversary this year. Despite additional federal funds and mandatory laws, children with disabilities were unserved or underserved by public school due to loop holes with in the law. Many more lawsuit followed Brown vs

The problem of disproportionate numbers of minority students in special education can be attributed to a report by Lloyd Dunn in 1968 (as cited in Skiba et al., 2008) even though discrimination was evident long before that in America. The phenomenon of disproportionality as it relates to students from minority backgrounds being placed in special education refers to the percentage of students receiving services being a higher rate than is expected or that differs significantly from other races. Skiba et al. (2008) discuss the history of various aspects of the civil rights movement as they pertain to the issue of disproportionality of students from minority backgrounds in special education, the measurement tools used to determine the need for special education, the current status of disproportionality, and what factors have contributed to the discrepancies in numbers. Finally, recommendations are offered by the authors on how the existence of disproportionality of students from a minority background can be rectified.

the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained (Lewis, 2012).” This quotation by her simplifies my own idea of what social justice is about. I feel a sense of responsibility for other’s welfare and I want to work with people using the field of social work to achieve progress toward my own goal of social justice.

Matthew Robinson, professor at Harvard Medical School, defines social justice as existing only when all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment

Social equality is the concept in which all individuals possess the same fundamental basic liberties, opportunities, moral value/respect, and social benefits. The concept of ‘equality’ has a multiplicity of meanings and definitions, and with the rise of liberalization and democratization around the world ‘social equality’ has become the most predominant. As economic openness creates greater wealth disparities, the parallel rise of democratization has enabled citizens to demand more accountability measures and public welfare services from their governments in order to manage such disparities. Although the movement towards greater social

As we grow in education, it always seems as in there is someone that is left behind. Educators need to be able to reach out as many students as possible, but some may argue that it does not feel this way. Often, students with special education needs are considered to be too difficult to teach, or simple just a “lost cause.” The way we interact and care for all students not only shows in each student, but it shows in the impact it has on the community as a whole.

The term social justice is normally used when referring to the ideas of equality and providing equal opportunities to pupils within school, regardless of their background, history or circumstances. Views of social justice can change depending on who is discussing the topic.

Oftentimes, the definition of social justice can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. The true definition of social justice is often structured by governmental implications but is the fair and proper administration of laws to each individual conforming to the natural law. Equality is supposed to be equally distributed amongst individuals nationally, but can sometimes be taken advantage of and be taken away from people who deserve it the most. Generally, those who view social justices as a right, also value people above profits.

Social justice is that status of the society where “equity” and “just treatment” of individuals exists. It is not limited to safeguarding the rights but also comes with responsibility to maintain a “society for all” providing equal opportunities. A socially just society can be achieved after examining the inequalities and seeking opportunity to curb the same by total elimination. The concept of social justice varies with the different philosophical approaches about the distribution or allocation of resources.

Over the last eight weeks, we have visited and deeply discussed many topics that surround social justice in the classroom. These topics have ranged from social justice in the world to how to create a socially just classroom and everything in between. In class, there has been a few times where it has been uncomfortable because the topics can bring out many opinions in the room. Many people in the room shared their opinions, including me, which brought up many other discussions. In this essay, I will be discussing our navigations through the social justice issues that classrooms face by talking about the key points of our class throughout the last eight weeks.

Social justice helps us in creating human interactions in society and social institutions. These institutions can provide us with what is good for the person and for our associations with others. This happens so long as our institutions are

Social sciences and social justice are both based on the structure of rights. Our rights were designed to create equality for all. However, there are always outliers in our justice system and these outliers can be seen by all. My background and demographic are aggressively average growing up in a small, rural community with little diversity which has affected my views about justice. The class Social Problems and Social Injustice has aggressively opened my eyes to new statistics about society and has made some of my intuitions validated and destroyed some of my prior views. My new understanding of social justice is that is was created for all by excluding some. Justice is the structure of our institutions and society.

For thousands of years individuals with exceptionalities have been present in all parts of society across the world, especially those with physical or sensory characteristics. However, the way that these individuals have been viewed has changed dramatically. Originally these individuals were seen as ‘imbeciles,’ ‘worthless,’ and ‘a burden on society’ and were often shut away from ‘normal’ society or simply left to die or abandoned to institutions. Society has, however, created a positive change and started to exhibit a more humanitarian view and protective nature and developed a concern for the welfare of individuals with exceptionalities. The steadily changing view of society has paved the way to where today these individuals are now considered a part of an all-inclusive society where every citizen has value, merit and is capable of making a contribution to society.