Understanding Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Are We Paying the Cost of Borderline Ethics?

On this special occasion of celebrating thirty years of the TECBD Conference, I am honored to share my ideas with such a distinguished group of professionals and acknowledge their collective contributions to the field of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). My background for talking about these issues is a deep familiarity with the contributions of research on various topics such as early intervention and prevention, academic instruction, social skills training, teacher effectiveness, and positive behavior supports for students with EBD. However, rather than deal with any of those subjects in detail, I propose to engage in a process of clarification and reflection.

Students with EBD often exhibit moderate to severe broad academic deficits in multiple areas as compared to their normative peers (Lane, 2004); they engage in aggressive acts and receive less positive attention by peers and adults. As a result, they are more likely to drop out of school, stay unemployed, engage in delinquent behavior, and have unsuccessful interpersonal relationships. Without appropriate educational services and social interventions, children with EBD are at significant risk for school failure and mental health and adjustment problems. However, it is difficult to overlook the fact that a substantial proportion of students with EBD are still deprived of services, partially due to professional uncertainty about what works in a specific context and how to implement what works in that context, or simply due to lack of resources. Special education policies such as, "inclusion for all" have been adopted despite research evidence or professional wisdom that does not fully support the use of these practices with all students with EBD. Additionally, some popular beliefs, such as segregating students with EBD in the self-contained settings without access to the general education curriculum continue without any scientific basis. Clearly, progress has been dismantled by policies that were preposterous. No contribution has been without limitation. Useful though the current knowledge is, much still remains to be discovered (Wood, 2004).

In "The Ethics of Excellence" (1993), Price Pritchett emphasized that excellence never happens by accident, but by focusing on intentions and processes. But he also cautioned about what can happen to excellence, when one feels surrounded by many who begin to cut corners, cover the truth, make deals, and follow the road of least resistance. We begin to face ethical dilemmas and the quality of the product goes down. As professionals in the field of EBD, we need to pause and reflect on the right things for students with EBD. After reading Pritchett, I started to ask myself larger questions concerning the challenges associated with our field and began to revisit traditional frameworks related to EBD. The issues of definition, interventions, research, and policies began to surface. Quickly, I realized that although we have made significant progress by removing many artificial boundaries created by research, policy, and practice to serve the students with EBD, we have a long way to go.

The focus of this article is to share apprehension, uncertainty, and concerns related to the definition of EBD and ethical issues involved in educational practice, teacher education, and research. The purpose is not to diminish or undermine the professional work that already exists, but to raise awareness that despite accumulating knowledge, we have compromised in making sound decisions for students with EBD. As professionals, we are working under competing loyalties and legal pressures. In becoming too faithful to the concept of inclusive education, unintentionally, we may be undermining the importance of individualized programming for students with EBD, thereby depriving many of these students of their right to an appropriate education. Sometimes, we may misuse or disregard professional knowledge at multiple levels of decision-making, e.g., at the teacher, administrator, or policy maker level, causing many students with EBD to not benefit from what we know about what works. We have also made broad generalizations about students with EBD without finding out what works, with whom, in what contexts, and under what circumstances. This further raises serious concerns about the need for ethical decision-making by teachers, researchers, and policy makers in viewing EBD as a public issue...