Beyond Able-Minded Citizenship: Embracing Intellectual Ability Differences in Democratic Education

• In Event: 63.018 - Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

My dissertation, Beyond Able-Minded Citizenship: Embracing Intellectual Ability
Differences in Democratic Education, begins with a basic question: Is a diverse society
one that permits the exclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities from
citizenship? I show that political philosophers and philosophers of education do not have
a definitive answer to this question. Within philosophical literature on democratic
education, philosophers embrace the existence of cultural, religious, racial, gender, and
other social differences as important to a thriving democracy. However, they frequently
ignore or sideline the potential significance of ability differences, especially those
associated with intellect and reasoning ability. In fact, prevailing understandings of civic
engagement within political theory, social and educational policy, and institutional
practice conform to norms of development, behavior, and civic contribution that assume
the presence of able-bodied and able-minded individuals. There is an unchallenged
assumption that those who experience significant difficulties in reasoning are unable to
perform the tasks of citizenship. These frameworks therefore fail to account for the range
of intellectual ability differences that exist and exclude individuals with intellectual
disabilities. This exclusion is rarely challenged, however, because it coheres with cultural
and social beliefs about who belongs in our imagined political communities.
I propose that individuals’ existent variability in intellectual processing,
communicative modes, and behavior should guide our reasoning about what is required
for civic participation. This approach aligns with inclusive education and disability
studies scholars’ commitments to conducting research that expects ability diversity – as
well as diversity in other embodied identities. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature
from political theory, educational philosophy, inclusive education, disability studies, and
critical sociology of race and gender, I consider how the recognition of existent
intellectual ability differences alters our philosophical theorizing about democratic
education and suggests the need for alternative frameworks of democratic participation
and the education that supports it. This places demands on our educational policy,
schooling practices and teacher education because it suggests the need to examine curricula, teaching practice, school-community partnerships and, importantly, ideas about
how civic knowledge is acquired and put into practice in light of varying abilities.
Answering the question of whether individuals with intellectual disabilities are owed an
education that prepares them to participate in democratic citizenship not only concerns
the extent to which we embrace differences of ability within education in general, but
also hinges on whether a just society can be one that does not enable the civic
contribution of those with significant disabilities.
This project, which is financially supported by a 2014-2015 National Academy of
Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, makes a number of important
interdisciplinary contributions: First, it offers a new way for political and educational
philosophers to understand democratic citizenship relative to students’ ability differences,
and reorients research on civic engagement towards more inclusive theory and policy.
Second, it bridges a disciplinary gap between philosophy and disability studies/inclusive
education in how to respond to differences of ability relative to civic engagement.
Finally, it offers a view of democratic participation that is more reflective of and
responsive to the ways that diverse individuals and communities already participate in
civic activities.

Author

• Ashley Taylor, Colgate University