Pedagogika społeczna i pedagogika specjalna wobec edukacji osób niepełnosprawnych

The similarities and differences in the description of disabled persons reality result from the research focus of particular fields of pedagogy. They pertain most often to the scale of disability phenomena, as well as to the organization and quality of the process of the upbringing and education of children and youth. In the research of social pedagogues, we can observe a shift of focus from the disabled person to the barriers that person has to overcome and his/her living environment. The research of special needs pedagogues accentuates more the processes connected with the organization of educational experiences in the individual dimension (revalidation, rehabilitation, therapy, social rehabilitation and orthodidactics, incorporated into educational and didactic influence) and their social effects. Thus, special needs pedagogy investigates: mechanisms, phenomena, states connected with care, therapy, education and upbringing of persons deviating from norm. Both social and special needs pedagogues emphasize the importance of shaping social attitude towards disabled persons and the phenomena connected with disability, accentuating the need for directing the education process at generating the attitude of humanism, egalitarianism, democracy, cooperation, respect for human dignity, tolerance, sense of personal dignity and self-control — indispensable values in Europe today