Book Review

Title: Vital Questions Facing Disability Studies in Education
Editors: Scot Danforth and Susan L. Gabel
Publisher: New York: Peter Lang, 2006
Paperback, ISBN: 978-0-8204-7824-0, 383 pages
Cost: $36.95 USD
Reviewer:  Steven E. Brown, Ph.D.

      Editors Danforth and Gabel facilitated an excellent collection of 20 essays in 10 categories following their own ÒIntroduction,Ó which itself comes on the heels of a brief Foreword by long-time disability studies educator Steven J. Taylor discussing disability studies in education prior to being named as such.  Each editor also has an essay of his or her own in the collection.  Danforth discusses ÒLearning from Our Historical Evasions:  Disability Studies and Schooling in a Liberal Democracy.Ó  This essay, paired with Deborah J. GallagherÕs ÒThe Natural Hierarchy Undone:  Disability StudiesÕ Contributions to Contemporary Debates in Education,Ó falls under the category, ÒHow Can Disability Studies Inform Our Understanding of Contemporary Political Debates in Education, Particularly in their Relevance to Disabled Students?Ó
      
      These essays follow a section about ÒLanguage and Representation of Disability,Ó which includes Phil SmithÕs creative, ÒSplit-----ing the ROCK of {speci [ES]al} e.ducation:  FLOWers of lang[ue]age in >DIS<ability studies,Ó which in addition to its content displays a form many will find challenging, just as many students with various disabilities do with our current educational practices and formats.
      
      I particularly liked GabelÕs dissection of ÒApplying Disability Theory in Educational Policy:  NIDRRÕs ÒNew Paradigm of Disability as a Cautionary Tale,Ó in the section, ÒIn What Ways is Disability Studies (Ir)Relevant to Local, State, and National Policy?Ó How does disability studies interact with institutionalized policy and bureaucracy and, maybe more importantly, how can, or will it, influence progressive changes in the future?
      
      Other sections address demographic populations, such as schools, teachers, families, culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and communities.  Still others address subjects like technology, international education and why teach disability studies in education.
      
       Disability Studies in Education is a plentiful smorgasbord of appetizing forays into disability studies in education.  As soon as I finished reading the book I began using it in the class I was teaching.  It belongs in any disability studies library.
      
Steven E. Brown, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the University of HawaiÔi Center on Disability Studies and an RDS Editor.