(Re)Centering Interconnectivity: Endarkened Feminist Inquiry in Special Education

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Exploring New Horizons in Critical Race Feminism and Intersectional Feminist Theories

Abstract

In this analysis, we–two Black women special education teacher educators–employ endarkened feminism (Dillard, 2000) to examine how our intertextual and interpersonal relationships with Black women, including other Black special educators and researchers, influence(d) our respective paths. We illuminate the ethical reflexivity required within a field that centers (fixing) disabilities and examine how engagement with members of multiply-marginalized communities challenge and sustain Black women, despite special education’s history of anti-Blackness. Further, through sister circles (Evans-Winters & Esposito, 2019), we challenged ourselves and each other to tease out the tensions in our individual and interwoven stories to offer intersectional imaginings to (re)center interconnectivity.

Authors

• Erica D. McCray, University of Florida

• Mildred Boveda, The Pennsylvania State University