英文摘要 |
Purpose: Under the policy of equity and adapted education, increasingly more students with disabilities graduating from high school are facing career decision-making. This study did not only identify the career discourse development of individuals with disabilities, but also enquires how to construct career discourse in introductory special education textbooks in Taiwan to challenge our thinking about realistic aspects of careers in the field of special education. Methods: This study adopted a qualitative approach and employed Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Two sets of data were used in the study. Primary data were the 16 introductory special education textbooks published in Taiwan from 1966 to 2003. Other documents compared or supplied textbook arguments as follows: (1) policy documents, official publications, and academic papers related to careers for individuals with disabilities; (2) documents and publications from special interest groups related to people with disabilities. After collecting data, the researcher undertook data analysis by a constant comparison method, and connected themes to derived results. Findings: During the 1990’s when martial law ended in Taiwan, career discourse shifted because of more interest groups participating in the discursive special education field, and career issues became an agenda in special education policy. Two categories of career discourse emerged for discursive shift. The first career discourse from 1966 to 1990 was based on medical and economic discursive construction: (1) employment-based discourse lacked post-secondary education discourse, (2) either separate or competitive placement of economic production, (3) career decision was made by object’s trait-factors, and (4) discur sive strategies were used in the absence of disabilities, gender, and occupation classifications. The second career discourse from 1991 to 2003 was based on medical, economic, and social contracts: (1) career discourse-blended employment and post-secondary education discourse, (2) continuous placement of economic production, (3) career decision was made regarding the participant’s career skills and competence, and (4) discursive strategies: intersperse and increase literature on post-secondary education discourse. Conclusions/ Implications: The results demonstrated that introductory special education textbooks construct career discourse on people with disabilities within the medical and economical framework. The study suggested the following: (1) examine the spoken position of introductory special education textbooks, (2) identify subject positions of people with disabilities in introductory special education textbooks, and (3) supplement examples on alternative career development for people with disabilities in introductory special education textbooks. |