"The Trouble With Love Is": Educator Voices of Inclusive Change

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Breaking Down and Unlearning Abled/Disabled Binaries

Abstract

Restructuring systems toward democratic schooling for students with disabilities is not a simple process where everyone sheds years of discursive scripts that tell us “those kids” don’t belong in the general education classroom. Upending an oppressive system is an endeavor of labor, devotion, aggression, and change. Through findings from a research project with one Midwestern school district, we share an affective narrative of belonging, love, and care. Inclusive reform is often approached as a technical challenge. We assert this is reflective of the positivist assumptions that ground inclusion’s segregative grandfather, special education. We argue that inclusion is a moral and subjective challenge, at the core of which is the indispensable need to directly address the importance of love and caring.

Authors

• Danielle M. Cowley, University of Northern Iowa

• Deborah J. Gallagher, University of Northern Iowa

• Amy J. Petersen, University of Northern Iowa

• Shehreen Iqtadar, University of Northern Iowa