De/colonizing "Access" to the General Education Curriculum: Girls of Color, Dis/abilities, and Specialized Education Programming

• In Event: 31.024 - "Dear Darling, Stiiir It Up!" Youth Reprogramming the World Beyond General Education and Family Separations

Abstract

Calling on de/colonial and feminists theories, we offer the testimonios of three teacher educators to critique of the concept of “general education curriculum” (GEC) institutionalized by education policies in the United States. With an understanding that dis/ability is not to be confused with special education identification, we examine the experiences of women and girls of color, especially those with mental dis/abilities, to name the ways the GEC reinforces the ableist, sexist, and colonial ontoepistemology that marginalize difference. We argue for an intersectional de/colonial approach and a dis/ability as meta curriculum that exposes the binaried function of the GEC, favors relationality and community over working in isolation, and counters the centering of the GEC in special education and specialized programming.

Authors

• Mildred Boveda, Arizona State University

• Ganiva Reyes, Miami University - Oxford

• Brittany Alexis Aronson, Miami University - Oxford