Applying Intersectionality and Intersectional Needs Politics to Special Education Research

• In Event: Contemporary Issues in Special Education

Abstract

We present four studies employing intersectionality (Collins, 2000; Crenshaw, 1991) and intersectional needs politics (Fraser, 1989; McCall & Skrtic, 2009) frames and show how such approaches can be applied to various special education issues (i.e., parent involvement, transition, inclusion, postschool outcomes) using qualitative and quantitative research methods, while also addressing multiple levels of analysis from the structural to the personal. This paper illustrates how research informed by intersectionality and intersectional needs politics can address and potentially remedy a number of long-standing problems in special education (e.g., disproportionate placement of racial/ethnic minorities into special education, disparate family involvement and student outcomes by race/ethnicity and social class) and ultimately help special education live up to its emancipatory, democratic aims (Skrtic, 1995).

Authors

• Zachary A. McCall, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Thomas M. Skrtic, The University of Kansas