Critical Literacy and Dis/Ability: Lessons About Reading the World

• In Event: Race, Gender, Dis/Ability, and the Intersection of Core Curriculums

Abstract

Virtually no instructional models in the field of special education literacy intervention research leverage critical perspectives. I used ethnographic methods to understand how elementary students with disabilities would respond to a systematic and strategic instructional model designed to support a critical habit of mind when engaging with text. Additionally, I employed autoethnography to resist colonialist approaches that exploit the particular cultural members for my own professional gain. Tensions related to my positionality, the methods used to implement the instruction, along with the goals I had in mind for students, who were all girls of color, became prominent findings as I worked to resist authoritative spaces, acknowledge dis/ability, and affirm their brilliance.

Author

• Amy Lynn Boele, University of Colorado - Denver