Toward Unity in School Reform: What DisCrit Contributes to Multicultural and Inclusive Education

• In Event: 63.063 - Disability Studies in Education: Toward Justice Through Educational Reform and Practice in K–12 Schools

Abstract

The communion of Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory as Dis/ability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit) invites conversations that elucidate how racism and ableism interconnect and collude to construct an idea of Otherness within which whiteness and ability are constituted as privileged positions. Drawing these frameworks together in a materialist analysis enables a discussion that challenges a notion of incremental school reform that is primarily aimed at the provision of a “level playing field.” More importantly, DisCrit calls for a strategic alliance among the dispossessed in schools. Through outlining initiatives in urban and special education reform I demonstrate how strikingly similar perspectives on race and ability have shaped curriculum reform narratives.

Author

• Susan E. Baglieri, Montclair State University