Reconceptualizing "Assistance" for Young Dis/Abled Children of Color in an Early Childhood Inclusion Classroom

• In Event: Critical Understandings Through Identity: Building Bridges Across Educational Contexts

Abstract

In this study, we draw on DisCrit to critically analyze how early childhood educators approach assistance with young dis/abled children of color in a Head Start inclusion classroom. Ableist, medical model-aligned forms of assistance aim to change young dis/abled children of color to be more like their able-bodied peers. Child-centered assistance resists the medical model and has the goal of supporting dis/abled children to pursue their own interests and purposes. We use ethnographic research methods to analyze the ways in which teachers enact ableist versus child-centered assistance. The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize traditional notions of assistance associated with “high quality inclusion” towards models of assistance that support young dis/abled children of color to be more fully themselves.

Authors

• Soyoung Park, Bank Street College of Education

• Sunmin Lee, Texas State University

• Monica Alonzo, The University of Texas at Austin

• Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas at Austin