Space Tenders: The Social Production of Special Educator Spatial Identities

• In Event: 21.062 - MTCC Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: 21.062-2 - Teaching and the Role of Race, Space, and Place

Abstract

The role of space in inclusive education remains under explored as a social and political construct. We know that space matters for the production and maintenance of student identities, however, little is known about its interaction with teacher and specifically special educator identity. This paper used critical spatial analysis to explore how the existing geographies of exclusion within schools mediated special educators’ identity construction. Through interactions with their sociocultural contexts, special educators’ engaged in the co-construction of space tender identities where they were recruited into systems of ableism that perpetuated and justified exclusion. Recommendations will be made for how school communities can critically interrogate space as a means for increased equity and inclusion.

Author

• Molly Elizabeth Siuty, Portland State University