Practicing Disability Studies in Education, Acting Toward Social Change

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The objectives of this session are to: (1) demonstrate how dis/ability studies in education (DSE) is utilized by a diverse body of scholars to actively challenge how dis/ability is currently understood within educational theory, research, policy, and practice; (2) focus on how DSE is used as a tool in forging action within these four interconnected domains; and (3) provide evidence that DSE is a dynamic field that impacts upon people’s lives—countering charges by high profile special education scholars of it being merely ideological, impractical, and without material consequences. In this session, five presenters illustrate their successful use of DSE-grounded research within their varied practice and collectively assert the need to engage with, and increasingly guide, educational policy.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Disability Studies in Education

Chair

• David J. Connor, Hunter College - CUNY

Papers

• Exploring the Moral Dimensions of the Social Model of Disability - Deborah J. Gallagher, University of Northern Iowa

• A Disability Studies in Education (DSE) Analysis of Corporate-Based Educational Reform Undermining Educational Equity in New Orleans - Kathleen M. Collins, The Pennsylvania State University

• “As a Cripple I Swagger”: Disability Studies in Education and Embodied Difference - Beth A. Ferri, Syracuse University

• Enacting Research: Disability Studies in Education and Performative Inquiry - Jan W. Valle, City College of New York - CUNY

• Practicing What We Teach: The Benefits of Using Disability Studies in an Inclusion Course - David J. Connor, Hunter College - CUNY

Discussant

• Chris Hale, College of Staten Island - CUNY