ABSTRACT
The preparation of teachers of special children tends to relate to categories of disorders and disabilities. For example, in the United States of America, to the extent that there has been support for continued classification by disability category, this can involve a relationship between classification and access to free appropriate public education. A loss of such categorisation and funding associated with it, for example for pupils eligible for government funded special programmes, might lead to a diminution of services for special children, it may be argued. Relatedly, the preparation of teachers in universities and colleges has tended to offer different preparation for special teachers and general teachers. More recently, it has been suggested that all teachers should receive collaborative preparation enabling general teachers and special education teachers to work together in teaching all children (Hardman and McDonnell, 2008, p. 161). This might assume a considerable overlap between education and related provision for children that do and do not have disabilities and disorders. Or it may assume that provision, especially education, can be divided meaningfully and pragmatically into content knowledge (mainly held by the general teacher) and specialist pedagogic skills to individualise instruction (mainly held by the special education teacher).
