Russian "defectology": anticipating Perestroika in the field

Spreading the Wealth: Developing Assessments of Cognitive Abilities in Non-WEIRD Countries

In this brief essay I reminisce on the ideas I encountered in Lev Vygotsky's lectures on pedology as an undergraduate student at Moscow State University in the USSR. Some of these ideas have been reliably stored in my professional memory and have influenced how my colleagues and I have approached the assessment of IQ (or general cognitive abilities) in countries other than the ones in which they were developed. Whereas the essay is autobiographical in nature, it attempts to make a generalizable point that spreading the wealth of existing knowledge, principles, and practice is as central to the progress of science as generating new knowledge.

Rehabilitation in Russia

For several decades, the disability community in Russia has battled for its rights. In 1995, a disability rights law was passed that covered multiple areas, such as environmental access, education, and work. This article focuses on Russian rehabilitation philosophy and practice. It is written from a mixture of perspectives—personal experience, discussions with activists, and articles—to highlight both the universality of challenges related to disability and the distinctiveness of problems within social systems.

Disability Prototypes in the United States and the Russian Federation:An International Comparison

The purpose of this cross-cultural research is to examine prototypical perspectives about disability groups in the United States and Russia by extending the research on disability prototypes that was conducted by McCaughey and Strohmer. Open-ended questions permitted participants to describe what they thought were prototypical characteristics of people in three disability groups (AIDS, hearing impairment, and spinal cord injury). A series of chi-square analyses indicate that there are significant differences across superordinate categories between the two countries, in addition to significant differences within two superordinate categories when examining the two samples across three disability categories.Tentative conclusions of the findings, possible implications for rehabilitation counselors, and directions for further research are briefly discussed.

An exploratory study on attitudes toward inclusive education in Russia

This exploratory study examined the attitudes toward inclusive education among Russian teachers, administrators and parents of students with and without disabilities (n=176). The results indicated that while there were no significant differences among teachers, administrators and parents of students with and without disabilities on overall attitudes toward inclusive education, there were significant differences in perspectives about the possible time-frame for implementing inclusive education. Generally speaking, school administrators and teachers tended to express the belief that inclusive education could be a reality even today, though many of this group thought that it might be a question of the near future or undefined future. Both groups of parents tended to think that inclusive education could occur in an undefined future. There were significant differences among the three groups about perceptions of responsibility for implementing inclusive education. Administrators, teachers and parents of students with disabilities viewed it as a responsibility of the school, while parents of students without disabilities viewed it as the government's duty. Further, the majority of respondents reported the lack of necessary conditions in schools and the lack of government policies and finances as the main barriers to inclusive education. These findings suggest two areas of intervention to promote the implementation of inclusive education in Russia: physical accessibility of schools and government support.