Breaking the Special Education/Disability Studies in Education Impasse: Using Legitimacy Theory in Introductory Courses to Foster Transformation

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

Abstract

Our paper addresses the intersection of teacher preparation, disability studies and special education. DSE problematizes special education practices, which can create a theoretical/pedagogical impasse. Due to deeply engrained socio-cultural understandings of disability, special education dominates teacher preparation and public education settings. We contribute to existing DSE scholarship by using Explanatory Legitimacy Theory (ELT) to re-conceptualize the value and credibility behind accepted responses to disability. ELT gives us a language to use to help our teacher candidates view categorization as a value judgment and a seemingly rational response to difference. We examine three topics commonly found in Introduction to Special Education courses to understand the ways that they intersect to shape understandings of what it means to teach students with disabilities.

Authors

• Maria Timberlake, SUNY - College at Cortland

• Jennifer Ashton, College at Brockport - SUNY