Changing Representations of an Inclusive School Over 25 Years: From Precious to Raucous

• In Event: Disability Studies in Education Frameworks for Rethinking Policy and Practice in Education, Higher Education, and Communication Supports

Abstract

This paper describes a case study examining one school’s news clippings, promotional, and fundraising materials depicting inclusive educational programs throughout its 25-year history. Examination of these document and video materials reveals themes that range from self-congratulation and charitable notions of inclusion to celebration of multiple forms of difference. Themes within the documents also reveal the struggle to move beyond disability-centered notions of inclusion, acceptance, and equity to broader understandings of these terms. As a program that was created from the outset to be inclusive, the STAR Institute (pseudonym) has struggled to define itself in a manner that transcends the limiting categories of special and general education, while working within/resisting the categorical systems required by the local school district.

Author

• Amy Hanreddy, California State University - Northridge