Contemplating Dis/Ability in Schools and Society


Book Description

This book chronicles the professional life of a career-long, inclusive educator in New York City through eight different stages in special and general education. Developing a new approach to research as part of qualitative methodology, David J. Connor merges the academic genre of autoethnography with memoir to create a narrative that engages the reader through stories of personal experiences within the professional world that politicized him as an educator. After each chapter’s narrative, a systematic analytic commentary follows that focuses on: teaching and learning in schools and universities; the influence of educational laws; specific models of disability and how influence educators and educational researchers; and educational structures and systems—including their impact on social, political, and cultural experiences of people with disabilities. This autoethnographic memoir documents, over three decades, the relationship between special and general education, the growth of the inclusion movement, and the challenge of special education as a discrete academic field. As part of a national group of critical special educators, Connor describes the growth of counter-theory through the inception and subsequent growth of DSE as a viable academic field, and the importance of rethinking human differences in new ways.




DisCrit—Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education


Book Description

This groundbreaking volume brings together major figures in Disability Studies in Education (DSE) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) to explore some of today’s most important issues in education. Scholars examine the achievement/opportunity gaps from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and the school-to-prison pipeline. Chapters also address school reform and the impact on students based on race, class, and dis/ability and the capacity of law and policy to include (and exclude). Readers will discover how some students are included (and excluded) within schools and society, why some citizens are afforded expanded (or limited) opportunities in life, and who moves up in the world and who is trapped at the “bottom of the well.” Contributors: D.L. Adams, Susan Baglieri, Stephen J. Ball, Alicia Broderick, Kathleen M. Collins, Nirmala Erevelles, Edward Fergus, Zanita E. Fenton, David Gillborn, Kris Guitiérrez, Kathleen A. King Thorius, Elizabeth Kozleski, Zeus Leonardo, Claustina Mahon-Reynolds, Elizabeth Mendoza, Christina Paguyo, Laurence Parker, Nicola Rollock, Paolo Tan, Sally Tomlinson, and Carol Vincent “With a stunning set of authors, this book provokes outrage and possibility at the rich intersection of critical race, class, and disability studies, refracting back on educational policy and practices, inequities and exclusions but marking also spaces for solidarities. This volume is a must-read for preservice, and long-term educators, as the fault lines of race, (dis)ability, and class meet in the belly of educational reform movements and educational justice struggles.” —Michelle Fine, distinguished professor of Critical Psychology and Urban Education, The Graduate Center, CUNY “Offers those who sincerely seek to better understand the complexity of the intersection of race/ethnicity, dis/ability, social class, and gender a stimulating read that sheds new light on the root of some of our long-standing societal and educational inequities.” —Wanda J. Blanchett, distinguished professor and dean, Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education




Rethinking Disability


Book Description

Now in its second edition, Rethinking Disability introduces new and experienced teachers to ethical framings of disability and strategies for effectively teaching and including students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Grounded in a disability studies framework, this text’s unique narrative style encourages readers to examine their beliefs about disability and the influence of historical and cultural meanings of disability upon their work as teachers. The second edition offers clear and applicable suggestions for creating dynamic and inclusive classroom cultures, getting to know students, selecting appropriate instructional and assessment strategies, co-teaching, and promoting an inclusive school culture. This second edition is fully revised and updated to include a brief history of disability through the ages, the relevance of current educational policies to inclusion, technology in the inclusive classroom, intersectionality and its influence upon inclusive practices, working with families, and issues of transition from school to the post-school world. Each chapter now also includes a featured "voice from the field" written by persons with disabilities, parents, and teachers.




Disability and Teaching


Book Description

Disability and Teaching highlights issues of disability in K-12 schooling faced by teachers, who are increasingly accountable for the achievement of all students regardless of the labels assigned to them. It is designed to engage prospective and practicing teachers in examining their personal theories and beliefs about disability and education. Part I offers four case studies dealing with issues such as inclusion, over-representation in special education, teacher assumptions and biases, and the struggles of novice teachers. These cases illustrate the need to understand disability and teaching within the contexts of school, community, and the broader society and in relation to other contemporary issues facing teachers. Each is followed by space for readers to write their own reactions and reflections, educators’ dialogue about the case, space for readers’ reactions to the educators’ dialogue, a summary, and additional questions. Part II presents public arguments representing different views about the topic: conservative, liberal-progressive, and disability centered. Part III situates the authors’ personal views within the growing field of Disability Studies in education and provides exercises for further reflection and a list of resources. Disability and Teaching is the 8th volume in the Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling Series, edited by Daniel P. Liston and Kenneth M. Zeichner. This series of small, accessible, interactive texts introduces the notion of teacher reflection and develops it in relation to the social conditions of schooling. Each text focuses on a specific issue or content area in relation to teaching and follows the same format. Books in this series are appropriate for teacher education courses across the curriculum.




How Teaching Shapes Our Thinking about Disabilities


Book Description

This book connects practice to research, and vice versa, through the use of deeply personal stories in the form of autoethnographic memoirs on teaching students with dis/abilities in K-12 settings across the USA.




Disabling the School-To-Prison Pipeline


Book Description

Disabling the School-to-Prison Pipeline interrogates how the school-to-prison pipeline operates for young people receiving special education services. Interviews with those directly affected suggest new ways of thinking about the problems facing special education.




Educating One and All


Book Description

In the movement toward standards-based education, an important question stands out: How will this reform affect the 10% of school-aged children who have disabilities and thus qualify for special education? In Educating One and All, an expert committee addresses how to reconcile common learning for all students with individualized education for "one"â€"the unique student. The book makes recommendations to states and communities that have adopted standards-based reform and that seek policies and practices to make reform consistent with the requirements of special education. The committee explores the ideas, implementation issues, and legislative initiatives behind the tradition of special education for people with disabilities. It investigates the policy and practice implications of the current reform movement toward high educational standards for all students. Educating One and All examines the curricula and expected outcomes of standards-based education and the educational experience of students with disabilitiesâ€"and identifies points of alignment between the two areas. The volume documents the diverse population of students with disabilities and their school experiences. Because approaches to assessment and accountability are key to standards-based reforms, the committee analyzes how assessment systems currently address students with disabilities, including testing accommodations. The book addresses legal and resource implications, as well as parental participation in children's education.




Urban Narratives


Book Description

Urban Narratives foregrounds previously silenced voices of young people of color who are labeled disabled. Overrepresented in special education classes, yet underrepresented in educational research, these students - the largest group within segregated special education classes - share their perceptions of the world and their place within it. Eight 'portraits in progress' consisting of their own words and framed by their poetry and drawings, reveal compelling insights about life inside and out of the American urban education system. The book uses an intersectional analysis to examine how power circulates in society throughout and among historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal domains, impacting social, academic, and economic opportunities for individuals, and expanding or circumscribing their worlds.




Practicing Disability Studies in Education


Book Description

Practicing Disability Studies in Education: Acting Toward Social Change celebrates the diversity of contemporary work being developed by a range of scholars working within the field of Disability Studies in Education (DSE). The central idea of this volume is to share ways in which educators practice DSE in creative and eclectic ways in order to rethink, reframe, and reshape the current educational response to disability. Largely confined to the limitations of traditional educational discourse, this collective (and growing) group continues to push limits, break molds, assert the need for plurality, explore possibilities, move into the unknown, take chances, strategize to destabilize, and co-create new visions for what can be, instead of settling for what is. Much like jazz musicians who rely upon one another on stage to create music collectively, these featured scholars have been - and continue to - riff with one another in creating the growing body of DSE literature. In sum, this volume is DSE «at work.»




A Child, a Family, a School, a Community


Book Description

This book is a true story of one family's journey into inclusive education with commentary that links practice to theory, revealing Disability Studies in Education (DSE) approaches to inclusive education.




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