Historical and Sociocultural

Foundations

Objectives:
• Discuss the historical and sociocultural foundation of special education; and
• Able to know the historical timeline and sociocultural of special education.

Introduction

Whenever you go, you will always look back because it is your guide to the present and
the future. Collaborating the special children to the normal is not easy, how come that the special children
can collaborate to a normal child? You will find the answers to these question in this lesson.

Instruction: Answer the following questions:

1. What was your best experience in the past that you use the
lesson that you learned in the present?

or you past
experience. 2. Does history is important?

Analysis
• Why do you think that the migration of person with special needs is
important?
• What are the possible happen if there will be a mainstreaming?
• Was the person got bullies or they will get valued and appreciated?
 Abstraction
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Lev Vygotsky- A proponent of a sociocultural theory. A sociocultural theory focuses on which
children’s cognitive development is influenced by the cultures in which they are reared and the people who
teach them. In his early workings he advocated what is known as “full inclusion model (Lipsky and Gardner,
1996). Vygotsky express firm conviction that special needs education should not be diminished version of
regular education, but a speedily designed setting where the entire staff of the school are able to exclusively
serve the individual needs of the students with disabilities, special needs need special trained teacher’s, a
differentiated curriculum, special technological auxiliary means and simply more time to learn. All these
should be available in the methods of teaching that should be change not the school setting. Students must
always be maintained as much as possible within the inclusive social and cultural environment of the school.

Fundamental principles of sociocultural perspectives on learning

Three themes are often identified with Vygotsky’s ideas of

sociocultural learning: (1) human development and learning
Let’s find out what are the
originate in social, historical, and cultural interactions, (2) use of
principles of sociocultural
psychological tools, particularly language, mediate development
perspectives learning!
of higher mental functions, and (3) learning occurs
within the Zone of Proximal Development. While we discuss these
ideas separately, they are closely interrelated, non-hierarchical, and connected.

Human development and learning originate in social, historical, and cultural interactions.
Vygotsky contended that thinking has social origins, social interactions play a critical role especially in the
development of higher order thinking skills, and cognitive development cannot be fully understood without
considering the social and historical context within which it is embedded. He explained, “Every function in
the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first
between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological)” (Vygotsky, 1978,
p. 57). It is through working with others on a variety of tasks that a learner adopts socially shared
experiences and associated effects and acquires useful strategies and knowledge (Scott & Palincsar, 2013).

Rogoff (1990) refers to this process as guided participation, where a learner actively acquires new
culturally valuable skills and capabilities through a meaningful, collaborative activity with an assisting,
more experienced other. It is critical to notice that these culturally mediated functions are viewed as being
embedded in sociocultural activities rather than being self-contained. Development is a “transformation of
participation in a sociocultural activity” not a transmission of discrete cultural knowledge or skills
(Matusov, 2015, p. 315).

Use of psychological tools, particularly language, mediate development of higher mental

functions. Another important aspect of Vygotsky’s views on learning is the significance of language in the
learning process. Vygotsky reasoned that social structures determine people’s working conditions and
interactions with others, which in turn shape their cognition, beliefs, attitudes, and perception of reality and
that social and individual work is mediated by tools and signs, or semiotics, such as language, systems of
counting, conventional signs, and works of art. He suggested that the use of tools, or semiotic mediation,
facilitates co-construction of knowledge and mediates both social and individual functioning. These
semiotic means play an important role in development and learning through appropriation, a process of an
individual’s adopting these socially available psychological tools to assist future independent problem
solving (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996).

Vygotsky viewed language as the ultimate collection of symbols and tools that emerge within a
culture. It is potentially the greatest tool at our disposal, a form of a symbolic mediation that plays two
critical roles in development: to communicate with others and to construct meaning.

Learning occurs within the zone of proximal development. Probably the most widely applied
sociocultural concept in the design of learning experiences is the concept of the Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD). Vygotsky (1978) defined ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental
level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined
through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (p. 86). He
believed that learning should be matched with an individual’s developmental level and that in order to
understand the connection between development and learning, it is necessary to distinguish the actual and
the potential levels of development. Learning and development are best understood when the focus is on
processes rather than their products. He considered the ZPD to be a better and more dynamic indicator of
cognitive development since it reflects what the
learner is in the process of learning as compared The distance between the actual
to merely measuring what the learner can
developmental level as determined
accomplish independently, reflecting what has
independent problem solving
been already learned (Vygotsky, 1978).

Ideas such as ZPD and scaffolding bring to light a fundamentally

different view of an instructor who serves more as a facilitator of learning rather than a fount of knowledge.
Likewise, the learner takes on more responsibilities such as determining their learning goals, becoming a
resource of knowledge for peers, and actively collaborating in the learning process (Grabinger, Aplin, &
Ponnappa-Brenner, 2007).

The historical foundations timeline of special education

1965- Congress adds Title IV to the elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965, which
created a Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (today, this bureauis called the office of Special
Education Programs or OSEP). At this time, educating students with disabilities is NOT mandated by
federal or state law.
1972- Supreme Court Decisions apply the equal protection argument to students with disabilities
[PARC v. Pennsylvania (1972) and mills v. D.C Board of Education (1972). Some students with disabilities
start going to school as a result of these court decisions.
 1973- Section 504 of the rehabilitation Act of 1973 is enacted, which protects qualified
individuals from discrimination based on disability. Since this law was enacted without excitement, most
educators did not know it applied to public schools.
1975- The education for all handicapped Children Act is authorized and is now known as the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This mandated that all school districts to educate
students with disabilities. This included: providing federal funding. FAPE, LRE, Procedural safeguards,
Non-discriminatory evaluations. And IEPs.
1977- The final regulations for EAHCA are determined, which include rules for school districts
to follow when providing an education to students with disabilities.
1986- The EACHA adds the Handicapped Children’s Protection Act, giving parents and students
rights under EACHA (now IDEA) and section 504.
1990- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) uses Section 504 regulations - “504 Plans”
are now made for individual students and have become much more common in schools now.
1990- The EAHCA is now called the individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). One
of the biggest changes to this Act is the transitional services for students with disabilities. This included
changes such as:
l The word “handicap” was changed to “disability”
l Person first language
l Added Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Autism categories
l Transition services
l Assertive technology & related services

1997- IDEA amends that students with disabilities are to be included in on state and district-wide
assessments. Regular Education teachers are now also required to be part of the IEP team. These changes
included and/ or affected:
l FAPE
l Nondiscriminatory evaluation
l IEP
l LRE
l Discipline
l Related Services
l Parents Rights

2001- No Child Left behind: This states that all students (including those with disabilities) to be
proficient in math and reading by the year 2014

2004- IDEA changes again many ways. The biggest change creates more accountability at the
state and local levels. Another change is that the school districts must provide instruction and intervention
for students to help keep them out of special education, if possible.
Application

Complete the table by stating of what happened on that year.

Topic: The historical foundations timeline of special education

YEAR
1972
2001
2004
1997
1990 (The EAHCA)
1977
1973
1965
1975