Minding the Gap: Understanding the Experiences of Racialized/Minoritized Bodies in Special Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Revealing and Reinterpreting Social Inequalities in Schools

Abstract

Research on special education in relation to the needs of racialized youth is absent from the current Canadian literature. Yet, in Ontario, special-education funding has become a provincial priority area, as funding to these programs has increased 54-percent in the last five years (Auditor General of Ontario, 2008). In Toronto, where the number of visible minorities increases each year, there have been considerable disparities for over fifty years in the academic achievement of racialized students. To date, there are limited studies or literature that reflects the experiences of racialized families and children in special education in Canada. The purpose of this project is to understand the experiences of racialized parents and students and their understanding of the special education process.

Author

• Jagjeet Kaur Gill, University of Toronto - OISE