Mark Mostert

Mark P. Mostert is co-director of the Institute for Disability and Bioethics and professor of Special Education at Regent University, Virginia Beach.[1][2][3] He has written about and lectured on Eugenics and Euthanasia, Nazi Germany's state-sanctioned "useless eater" policy to exterminate people with disabilities and others considered less than human,[4] and the fads and pseudoscientific practices found in special education.

Mark P. Mostert
Born
Johannesburg, South Africa
Alma materJohannesburg College of Education
OccupationProfessor at Regent University
Notable work
Useless Eaters

Education

Mostert grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He attended the Johannesburg College of Education (now the University of Witwatersrand) where he studied special education and biblical studies. He earned an H.E.D. in Special Education in 1976. Mostert went on to earn a M.Ed. in Special Education (1985), from the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama and a Ph.D. in Special Education and Teacher Education (1992) from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. His dissertation, published by the University of Illinois, was entitled Metaphor in Special Educators' Language of Practice.[2][3]

Career

In 1977, Mostert became a teacher at Highveld Elementary School in Johannesburg, South Africa. He also taught at Mondeor High School in Johannesburg before moving to Alabama for graduate school.[3]

From 1985 to 1986, Mostert was a special education teacher at Old Dauphin Way School in Mobile, Alabama.[3]

He served as Program Director and Director of Education at the Charter Southland Hospital in Mobile, Alabama from 1986 to 1987 and served two years as principal at the St. Mark School, Mobile, Alabama before pursuing his doctorate.[3]

In 1992, Mostert became the Program Coordinator for Programs and Licensure in Learning Disabilities at Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, Minnesota. He remained at the university, becoming associate professor, then professor of special education, until 2000.[3]

From 2000 to 2002, Mostert served as Associate professor of Special Education at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.[2][3]

He left Old Dominion University for Regent University in 2002, where he continues to serve as Director, Special Education Doctoral Cognate and Professor of Special Education.[2][3]

In 2007, Mostert became Director of the Institute for the Study of Disability and Bioethics at Regent University.[2][3]

Useless eaters and assisted suicide

Mostert has written and spoken about ethical and policy concerns regarding assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses or those who are otherwise medically vulnerable.[5] Current policies in states allowing assisted suicide, according to Mostert, do not have the requisite safety policies in place (for example, no witness is required when the medicine is administered) and are open to possible abuse.[6] His concern is people with government jobs—and not physicians—are making decisions about "treatment or the withholding of treatment".[7] Mostert asserts that economic rationale (e.g., the cost of end-of-life care) is still subtly affecting health care policies in the United States.[5] He compares this type of thinking and policy-making to that of the "useless eaters" program introduced in Nazi Germany which implemented a state-sanctioned action that allowed the killing of people with disabilities and others deemed as less than human.[4][5][8]

Mostert advocates getting rid of the term "vegetative state" for people who are chronically and medically unconscious, and replacing it with "persistent, non-responsive state," which is less demeaning.[9]

Mostert has also linked the use of Facilitated Communication (FC), with its "serious problems of validity and logic," with Nazi-era pseudoscience. He wrote in a 2001 article: "The results of these actions were extremely damaging, both practically and ethically, to many people FC was supposed to assist. The reaction[s] of many members of the public and media, who embraced FC based on the flimsiest of evidence, were hardly less astonishing."[10]

The Positive Side of Special Education

Mostert co-wrote The Positive Side of Special Education: Minimizing Its Fads, Fancies and Follies (published by R&L Education, 2004) with Kenneth Kavale. The book is an overview of practices and interventions in the field of special education that had "significant impact but lacked scientific validation". The authors explore practices that may have been started with good intentions, but were found to be based more on ideology than logic and rationality.[11][12] The book offers readers insight into developing a "more scientific attitude" and become less susceptible to "fallible judgment" and pseudoscientific practices. The book is intended for those working with people with disabilities: educators, parents, undergraduate and graduate students, psychologists and the like.[12] The Positive Side of Special Education won a 2005 Award presented by the American Library Association.[13]

Awards
  • Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, Minnesota University-Moorhead (1996-1997)[14]
  • Millman Promising Scholar Award, Cornell University (inaugural winner) (1996)[2]

Selected Articles
  • Evaluation of Research for Usable Knowledge in Behavioral Disorders: Ignoring the Irrelevant, Considering the Germane (2001)[15]
  • Facilitated Communication Since 1995: A Review of Published Studies (2001)[16]
  • Useless Eaters: Disability as Genocidal Marker in Nazi Germany (2002)[17]
  • Meta-Analyses in Mental Retardation (2003)[18]
  • Truth and Consequences with James M. Kauffman and Kenneth A. Kavale (2003)[19]
  • Face Validity of Meta-Analyses in Emotional or Behavioral Disorders (2004)[20]
  • Social Skills Interventions for Individuals with Learning Disabilities with Kenneth A. Kavale (2004)[21]
  • There is a Way to Make Ethical Decisions in the Classroom (2004)[22]
  • The Starting Point Must be the Dignity of Human Worth[1]
  • Facilitated Communication and Its Legitimacy - Twenty-First Century Developments (2010)[23]
  • Facilitated Communication: The Empirical Imperative to Prevent Further Professional Malpractice (2012)[24]
  • An Activist Approach to Debunking FC (2014)[25]

Books
  • Challenging the Refusal of Reasoning in Special Education with Kenneth A. Kavale and James M. Kauffman ISBN 978-0-891-08329-0
  • Interprofessional Collaboration in Schools: Practical Action in the Classroom ISBN 978-0-205-16689-3
  • Managing Classroom Behaviors: A Reflective Case-Based Approach (5th Edition) with James M. Kauffman, Patricia L. Pullen, and Stanley C. Trent ISBN 978-0-137-05679-8
  • The Positive Side of Special Education: Minimizing Its Fads, Fancies, and Follies with Kenneth A. Kavale ISBN 978-1-578-86097-5
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References
  1. Mostert, Mark P. (March 2009). "The Starting Point Must Be the Dignity of Human Worth". Virginian Pilot. p. B11.
  2. "Faculty & Staff - Mark P. Mostert, Ph.D. Professor". Regent University School of Education. Virginia Beach, VA: Regent University. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  3. Mostert, Mark P. "Mark P. Mostert Vita" (PDF). Regent University. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  4. Liaugmanis, Sheila (September 11, 2013). "A Closer Look". Relevant Radio. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  5. Lewis, Charles (December 1, 2007). "The Burden of Mercy; Forces for Society's Most Vulnerable Convene at Conference". National Post. Don Mills, Ontario. p. A14. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  6. "CBN Newswatch: Mark Mostert". YouTube. November 20, 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  7. "Palin, Obama Duel over 'Death Panels'". CBN.com. The Christian Broadcasting Network. September 11, 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  8. "Threat of Modern Day Eugenics and Euthanasia". YouTube. Life Matters TV. November 29, 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  9. Hurd, Dale (November 25, 2009). "Misdiagnosis: Coma Patient Awake All Along". CBN.com. The Christian Broadcasting Network. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  10. Kliewer, Christopher; Biklen, Douglas; Kas-Hendrickson, Christi (Summer 2006). "Who May Be Literate: Disability and Resistance to the Cultural Denial of Competence". American Educational Research Journal. 43 (2): 163–192. doi:10.3102/00028312043002163. JSTOR 3699417.
  11. Hausstarter, Rune Sarromaa; Connolley, Steven (2012). "Towards a Framework for Understanding the Process of Educating the "Special" in Special Education". International Journal of Special Education. 27 (2): 181–188. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  12. "The Positive Side of Special Education: Minimizing Its Fads, Fancies and Follies". Rowman.com. Rowman & LIttlefield. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  13. "The positive side of special education: minimizing its fads, fancies, and follies". ALA.org. American Library Association. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  14. "Roland and Beth Dille Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award". Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Moorhead, Minnesota. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  15. Mostert, Mark P.; Kavale, Kenneth (November 2001). "Evaluation of Research for Usable Knowledge in Behavioral Disorders: Ignoring the Irrelevant, Considering the Germane". Behavioral Disorders. 27 (1, Special Issue: The Meaning of Science and Empirical Rigor in the Social Sciences): 53–68. JSTOR 43153378.
  16. Mostert, Mark (June 2001). "Facilitated Communication Since 1995: A Review of Published Studies". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 31 (3): 287–313. doi:10.1023/a:1010795219886. PMID 11518483.
  17. Mostert, M.P. (2002). "Useless Eaters: Disability as Genocidal Marker in Nazi Germany". Journal of Special Education. 36 (2): 155–168. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  18. Mostert, Mark P. (June 2003). "Meta-Analyses in Mental Retardation". Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities. 38 (2): 229–249. JSTOR 23879599.
  19. Mostert, Mark P.; Kauffman, James M.; Kavale, Kenneth A. (August 2003). "Truth and Consequences". Behavioral Disorders. 28 (4): 333–347. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  20. Mostert, Mark P. (February 2004). "Face Validity of Meta-Analyses in Emotional or Behavioral Disorders". Behavioral Disorders. 29 (2): 89–118. JSTOR 23889444.
  21. Kavale, Kenneth A.; Mostert, Mark P. (February 2004). "Social Skills Interventions for Individuals with Learning Disabilities". Learning Disability Quarterly. 27 (1): 31–43. doi:10.2307/1593630. JSTOR 1593630.
  22. Mostert, Mark (Winter 2004). "There is a Way to Make Ethical Decisions in the Classroom". Beyond Behavior. 13 (2): 17–24.
  23. Mostert, Mark (2010). "Facilitated Communication and Its Legitimacy - Twenty-First Century Developments". Exceptionality. 18 (1): 31–41. doi:10.1080/09362830903462524. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  24. Mostert, Mark P. (June 18, 2012). "Facilitated Communication: The Empirical Imperative to Prevent Further Professional Malpractice". Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention. 6 (2): 18–27. doi:10.1080/17489539.2012.693840.
  25. Mostert, Mark P. (September 2014). "An Activist Approach to Debunking FC". Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities. 39 (3): 203–210. doi:10.1177/1540796914556779. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
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