Politics of Belonging and the Segregation of Students With Intellectual Disability

• In Event: 66.057 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 66.057-15 - Outside, Under, and Through: Traversing the Landscape of Schooling and Dis/Ability

Abstract

Students with the most significant and multiple disabilities receive all instruction in segregated settings. Some scholars argue that the problem with this form of segregation located in federal or state policy, or local pedagogy or curriculum. Alternatively, I argue that policies and practices are artifacts of regimes of belonging associated with the hegemony of normalcy. Using belonging as a touchstone concept and the segregation of students with intellectual disability as a concrete example, this paper constructs a critical spatial definition of belonging that explains the segregation of students with intellectual disability.

Author

• Susan L. Gabel, Wayne State University