International Disability and Rehabilitation Journals: Another (Relatively) Brief Review
By Kay Schriner
Dear Readers: This is another in what may become a series of reviews of international disability and rehabilitation journals. I confess, it's been a pleasant surprise to find the number and quality of publications that deal with international disability issues. I take this as an indication of a growing contemporary worldwide interest in disability concerns.
In a first review (published in the January-March 2002 issue of Disability World), I covered ten journals, which included:
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Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal
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Asia & Pacific Journal on Disability
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Bulletin of the World Health Organization
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Disability and Rehabilitation
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Disability and Society
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International Journal of Rehabilitation Research
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International Rehabilitation Review
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Issues in Law and Medicine
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Journal of Disability Policy Studies
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Saudi Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation
For those of you who are interested in my assessment of these journals, or subscription information, please go to that earlier issue of Disability World.
As with that first review, I'll provide my reaction to several journals and information you need if you're interested in learning more about them or subscribing to them. The pickings are a bit slimmer this time in terms of number, though the quality is no less. When this list of journals is added to the ten reviewed earlier, it's fair to say that the field of international disability and rehabilitation is well-represented in journal coverage.
As a reminder, please remember that my biases enter into this reporting. I'm interested primarily in the policy and politics that underlie and surround disability issues, so I'm apt to be more enthusiastic about publications that address these topics. I share the view that often, clinical approaches to disability can create as many problems as they solve, so I am more critical of research and scholarship in clinical areas such as health care and rehabilitation.
Disability, Culture, and Education. Edited by Scot Danforth and Susan Gable of the U.S., this journal was established to publish international research and scholarship in "humanities and the humanities-oriented qualitative social sciences" with an eye to supporting scholarship that "examines, critiques, and interprets disability as a construct and a human experience embedded within cultural beliefs, practices, and social institutions."
This is a broad goal, and a worthy one. Firmly rooted in social constructionism, this purpose reflects the feelings of many knowledgeable people that disability is so firmly rooted in culture, politics, and economics that we will not be able to improve the quality of the lives led by people with disabilities until we understand the contemporary placement of disability within society. The human variations we call disability - and what we do about it - can only be understood from a historical, critical perspective.
This journal intended to apply this perspective to education. The announcement I have contained a list of Volume 1, Number 1 contents, including: "(Im)Material citizens: Cognitive disability, race, and the politics of citizenship" (by Nirmala Erevelles), "Notes toward a history of hopelessness: Disability and the places of therapeutic failure" (by Phillip M. Ferguson), "Beyond the metaphor of merger: Confronting the moral quagmire of segregation in early childhood special education" (by Christopher Kliewer and Donna Raschke), and reviews of the book "Female forms: Experiencing and understanding disability" (by Carol Thomas).
An enticing line-up, promising provocative and timely examinations of the relationships between disability, culture, and education.
Unfortunately for all of us, dear readers, the journal was cancelled by its publisher after just two issues, apparently on the grounds that it wasn't making money. So, maybe we should believe that cynic who said that the profit motive is behind all publishing decisions. It certainly seems so in this case, because the goals of the journal were worthy ones and met a need in the field of disability studies.
If people reading this would like to voice their opinions to the publisher about the rapid demise of this publication, please contact Information Age Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 4967, Greenwich CT 06831. Telephone 203.661.7602, fax 203.661.7952. The web address is www.infoagepub.com.
International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. According to its publishers, IJDDE is a "multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal with an international focus." It is a publication of Taylor & Francis (which has offices in London, New York, Oslo, Philadelphia, Singapore, and Stockholm).
The journal's editorial board is mostly made up of people from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the U.S. But it also has members from Taiwan, China, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.
Contents of recent issues include articles on "Self-operated verbal instructions for people with intellectual and visual disabilities..." (Giulio E. Lancioni, Mark F. O'Reilly, and Doretta Oliva), "Disabilities among Norwegian students found eligible for special education" (by Karl J. Skarbrevik), "Measuring the quality of early intervention services for infants and toddlers..." (by Susan Kontos and Karen Diamond), and "How German teachers in special education perceive and describe children with a learning disability" (by Frank Prucher and Hans-Peter Langfeldt). True to the journal's title, the authors represent a fair number of nations.
This journal tends to feature articles that are more "research-y" in the traditional sense of the word than does its sister publication, the International Journal of Inclusive Education. There are more numerical data here, with more traditional research designs, and suitably restrained conclusions.
Because of this focus, the journal will probably be viewed by many as having more practical utility than, say Disability and Society (reviewed in the January-March 2002 issue of Disability World). For readers interested in what's working, with whom, and under what condition, this journal would be a good choice for allocating precious reading time.
Subscription information. For more information, or to view a sample copy of the journal, see the publisher's website at www.tandf.co.uk/journals. You can also enter a subscription order on the web, or contact the publisher by e-mail (journals.orders@tandf.co.uk). The institutional rate is $326 U.S.; individuals may subscribe for $122 U.S. The snail mail address is Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd., Customer Services Department, Rankine Road, Basingstoke, Hants RG24 8PR, UK. Telephone is +44 (0) 1256 813002, Fax +44 (0) 1256 330245.
International Journal of Inclusive Education. This is another Taylor & Francis Group publication. It is described as a "strategic forum for international and multi-disciplinary dialogue on inclusive education." Its intended audience includes educators and educational policy makers "concerned with the form and nature of schools, universities and technical colleges."
I'd say the publishers are being a bit shy about the readership. Who isn't concerned about how our schools are organized? What they're doing to educate children and youth with disabilities? How well it's working? These are major issues in the disability rights movement in every nation. Parents and other advocates - not to mention kids themselves - have rightly fixed their attention on the educational systems in their countries. If children and youth aren't well-educated, what can the future of disabled people be?
The International Journal of Inclusive Education is a good resource for all these readers. I reviewed the contents and abstracts from several recent issues. Every one had articles that would appeal to readers of all kinds. Academicians will find the contributions a bit spotty, perhaps. Not all the articles seem well-written or profound, but that's true with any journal. Policy makers should find the contents stimulating, as will many advocates, parents and students.
The topics addressed in recent issues include "The challenge of enhancing inclusive education in developing countries" (by C. Jonah Eleweke and Michael Rodda), "Poverty, deprivation and the politics of educational inclusion in Thanet [England] and Lille [France]" (by Paul J. Welsh and Josette Brassart), "Constructing and educating 'problem children': the case of post-communist Estonia" (by Mare Leino and Elina Lahelma), and a "Comparison of a traditional and an inclusive secondary school culture [in Australia]" (by Suzanne Carrington and John Elkins).
Many of the articles (perhaps most) use qualitative methods of investigation. This will be appreciated by those who cringe at the sight of number-laden tables, but will dismay others who can't bear living without them.
The journal's strength is, in my view, its presentation of ideas and qualitative studies about inclusive education. There is considerable breadth in the contents, though some pieces do seem a bit sketchy.
It is to the editor's credit that the journal is publishing pieces by authors from many countries. Given that the editorial board for the journal is made up primarily of people from the United Kingdom and the United Stated, I didn't expect the geographical diversity of the contributions. (There are a few board members from New Zealand, Malta, Australia, and Canada. The editor is Roger Slee from Education Queensland in Australia.)
Subscription information: The journal is published quarterly. For individuals, the subscription cost is $159 U.S.; institutions can subscribe for $320 U.S. Go to the web for Taylor & Francis for more information, www.tandf.co.uk/journals. You can view Tables of Content for recent issues there as well as abstracts for some articles. If you have access to a university or college library, check holdings there for access in hard copy or in an electronic database. The snail mail, telephone, and fax numbers are the same as for the International Journal of Disability, Development and Education.
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