A DisCrit Analysis of Special Education Teacher Beliefs About the Intersections of Disability and Race

• In Event: DisCrit: Mapping and Excavating the Intersections of Race and Dis/Ability

Abstract

This study highlighted expressed beliefs of special education teacher candidates were obtaining a credential to work in Southern California. Data collected over two years and four credential courses included short reflection prompts, critical essays, interviews, and surveys. N=60 participants’ responses to prompts, interview and survey questions, and essays were analyzed using tenets of DisCrit. Data revealed that special education candidates’ beliefs about disability and race shifted as they were exposed to meaningful texts, videos, and research that contradicted medicalized frameworks of disability and/or surface level representations of race/disability intersections. Unfortunately, however, shifts were temporary in the context of the larger neoliberal teacher education reform structure which permeated candidates’ other credential requirements and school settings. Implications for building resistance are discussed.

Author

• Saili S. Kulkarni, San Jose State University