Toward a Theology of Special Education

Foreword Central to the mission of Calvin College, where I have worked to prepare teachers of students with disabilities, is the task of learning through the eyes of faith. Many students choose a Christian college because they want to know what difference it makes to learn about special education, or any field, from a Christian perspective. And so we explore that together, critiquing professional literature and best practices, analyzing what we do and why we do it, looking for congruence with a Christian view of persons, society, and schooling. Together we search the Scriptures and the growing canon of works that illuminate a theology of disability and apply that to our work in schools. In the last several years, the writing of Professor David W. Anderson has emerged to help us. While he is not the first to apply biblical themes to thinking about disability, Anderson is one of few authors to use the lens of faith to think specifically about the education of students with disabilities. Professor Anderson correctly discerns that special education is a ministry to which one can be called. He also helps us see clearly that biblical themes such as justice, reconciliation, and hospitality have direct bearing on how we view persons, the purpose of schooling, the culture of schools, and the ways in which we teach. To have such thinking, some of it published previously in article form, collected in one place and expanded upon, is a gift to all who want to extend the Lordship of Jesus Christ to this square inch of creation. It will be useful especially to teachers in preparation at Christian institutions of higher education. For Christian students at secular colleges and universities, this book will guide their thinking in ways their professors may not. To be clear, the focus of this book is not narrowly on the education of students with disabilities in private, Christian schools, though what Anderson has to teach us can certainly be applied in such settings. The book’s broader focus is on helping Christian people—be they teachers, parents, school administrators, board members, or others—think Christianly about the education of children who learn in diverse ways, about the broad purposes of schools, and about the communities in which learning takes place. In doing this, Anderson goes beyond the medical model, which dominated the field of special education for many years, and beyond the social constructivist model that today dominates discussion of disability in special education and the burgeoning field of disability studies. Anderson’s distinctly biblical focus has great potential for moving educational practice for all children in new directions, reforming and re-energizing schools. Particularly compelling are Anderson’s arguments that go beyond appeals to Constitutional principles such as “equal protection” and “due process” and beyond notions of individual rights. For him, the more salient concepts are those of biblical justice and reconciliation, and he presents a communitarian vision of life together in schools and elsewhere. Among other things, Anderson argues that both unnecessary segregation and mindless integration can be ways of treating students unjustly. In situations such as those, reconciliation is necessary in order to establish healthy relationships between people—parents and children, children and teachers, parents and educators, children and children. Living out justice means resolving conflict so that people may experience harmony and gracious living in community. As Anderson says, “Reconciled relationships and belonging are hallmarks of the type of just community we seek to establish in our classrooms.” Inclusive educational practice arises from more than the principle of biblical justice. Professor Anderson also illuminates ideas such as interdependence and shalom. His thinking provides guidance to those who wish to create inclusive schools, faith communities, neighborhoods, and places of work and play. He argues for a deepened view of inclusion that is more than physical and temporal and pedagogical. Deep inclusion envisions solidarity within community and imagines school, church, and other cultural arenas free from alienation and characterized by mutuality. He asserts that this way of living together is part of God’s design for the way things are supposed to be. Though Dr. Anderson focuses on an area of human difference commonly referred to as disability, his ideas can be applied readily to any area of human diversity, be it ethnicity, language, gender, social class, sexual orientation, or others. He humbly invites others to add insights to the work he has begun. While the strength of his book is its perspectival approach, additional writing is needed in which classroom practice is pushed to embody the principles elucidated here in practical, applied ways. Nonetheless, readers of this book will be challenged as well as given critical tools for doing that work. Few could have written this book, which is at the nexus of faith, disability, and education. Anderson goes a long way in helping us to rethink and remember who we are as God’s people. Thomas B. Hoeksema, Ph.D. Professor of Education, Emeritus Calvin College Grand Rapids, Michigan