专门教育定义的思考——以中美比较为视角

Reflection on the definition of special education--from the perspective of comparison between China and America

长期以来,专门教育在理论界和实务界缺乏一个清晰和统一的权威定义。尽管法律上的专门学校名称替代了工读学校,但是工读教育和工读学校的称谓并没有完全退出历史舞台。法律的修订和近年来各种新建的专门学校,更是使得其定义变得异常复杂和混乱。定义混乱的本质原因是目标、内涵、定位的迷惘,定义的厘清是制度重构的前提。美国的替代性学校是类似于我国专门学校的一类特殊学校,两者的对比可以引发我们关于专门教育定义更深的思考。借鉴美国经验,结合我国的国情,我们应该采用更广义的类型学定义,采用分级制进行区分,区分专门教育中教育和司法的不同属性,将司法的负面影响控制在最小范围内。专门教育应该以学生的教育需求为视角,并关注通过教育实现改变这一核心任务。

For a long time,special education has lacked a clear and unified authoritative definition in both theoretical and practical fields.Although the legal name of special school replaced the name of working-study school,the name of working-study education and working-study school did not disappear.The revision of the law and the establishment of various special schools in recent years have further complicated and confused the definition.The essence of the confusion of definition is the confusion of target,connotation and orientation,and the clarity of definition is the premise of the system reconstruction.Alternative schools in the United States are a kind of special schools similar to special schools in China.The comparison between the two schools can lead us to think more about the definition of special education.Drawing on the experience of the United States and combining with China's national conditions,we should adopt a broader definition of typology and a grading system to distinguish the different attributes of education and justice in special education,in order to control the negative impact of justice to a minimum,special education should take the perspective of students'educational needs and focus on the core task of achieving change through education.