Teachers as Critical Cartographers: Mapping to Dismantle Disabling and Racialized School Spaces

• In Event: 18.040 - The Role of Mapping Methodologies to Disrupt Neoliberalism and Injustices at the Intersections of Ableism and Racism

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to (a) understand how teachers’ experiences in educational spaces mediate their constructions of dis/ability and race; and (b) examine how mapping with teachers can dismantle disabling and racialized school spaces in the context of neoliberalism.
Perspectives
Our paper is framed by two complementary perspectives: inclusive education and Dis/ability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit). Critical scholars in inclusive education critique the normative center of schools, which uphold whiteness and smartness (Leonardo & Broderick, 2011), and define deviance in ways that unevenly distribute access, resources, and power (Waitoller & Artiles, 2013). DisCrit foregrounds how race and dis/ability are socially constructed in tandem to sustain interlocking systems of oppression (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013). DisCrit affords linkages between projects of disability and racial justice to disrupt interconnected marginalizing processes in education (Annamma, 2017).
Methods
Following Annamma (2016; 2017) we utilized Education Journey Mapping. We asked teacher participants to visually and verbally narrate their experiences with dis/ability and race in educational spaces, and to describe how these experiences related to their own identities. As researchers, we created our own maps as well, and shared these with participants. Data was analyzed both inductively and deductively (Saldaña, 2015). Through multiple rounds, we discussed emerging hunches and “rough drafts” of our analyses with teacher participants to refine themes and surface new ones.
Data Sources
Data sources include 100 Education Journey Maps created by teacher participants. In addition to these maps, we also collected narratives from 100 teacher participants in the form of interviews and/or written responses, which add nuance and dimension to the physical artifacts.
Results
Across our data, teachers recalled the silence they experienced in school spaces about both dis/ability and race. Simultaneously, teachers shared how spatial boundaries (e.g., school layout, school geographic location, university departmental divisions), organized by neoliberal policies, contributed to inequitable treatment of students with dis/abilities and students of Color. This socio-spatial dialectic (Soja, 2010) normalized inequitable practices, perpetuating whiteness and smartness as property in schools (Leonardo & Broderick, 2011). Moreover, teachers shared how mapping revealed the ways in which ideologies materialize in educational spaces. For our teacher participants, mapping made visible the need for disrupting interlocking systems of oppression in schools and allowed them to see new possibilities for their practice.
Significance
Our analysis contributes to prior research demonstrating how teachers’ educational experiences directly influence their beliefs about educational practices (Aldemir & Sezer, 2009; Chang-Kredl & Kinsgsley, 2014; Flores & Day, 2006). As a consequence of silences and spatial boundaries, participants learned that educational systems rooted in ableism and racism were necessary and the right way to organize students and curriculum. As a methodological tool, mapping enabled us to research side-by-side (Erikson, 2012) with teacher participants, deepening our mutual understanding of the disabling and racializing effects of school spaces, and suggesting future directions for supporting teachers to disrupt educational injustices at the intersections of ableism and racism.

Authors

• Margaret R. Beneke, University of Washington

• Molly Elizabeth Siuty, Portland State University