Toward Inclusive and Equitable Education: Disrupting Deficit-Based Positioning of Families and Students Labeled With Dis/Abilities

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium unites scholars from education policy, disability studies, inclusive, and special education fields in search of analytical tools to disrupt deficit-based positioning of families from minoritized backgrounds. Drawing from disability critical race, socio-spatial dialectic, cultural historical activity, intersectional, raciolinguistic, institutional, and decolonial theories scholars center voices of caregivers, Black families, Black boys, youth, immigrant students labelled with and without dis/abilities as well as educators to critically examine their experiences with schooling, teacher-parent relationships, and access to quality education. Acknowledging the lingering consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism, it is crucial to reconstruct education. In such, new socio-political approaches can be generated among educational stakeholders, policy makers, and families to dismantle inequities embedded within educational systems.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Special and Inclusive Education Research

Chair

• Elizabeth B. Kozleski, Stanford University

Papers

• Caregiver Experiences and Desires Related to Distance Learning for Their Children With Extensive Support Needs - Samantha Gross Toews, California State University - Northridge

• Addressing the Scarcity of Holistic Support for Black Families of Youth With Extensive Support Needs - Courtney L. Wilt, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• "It's Hard to Take School Seriously When It's Not Taken Seriously at Home": Dismantling Pathologizing Stories About Families - Inna Stepaniuk, Simon Fraser University

• Black Boys' With and Without Disability Labels Perceptions of Successful Black Parenting Practices - William A. Proffitt, Montclair State University

• Parent Participation in Special Education: Has It Worked? - Suman Rath, University of Memphis

• Anti-Blackness and Spirit Murdering: Perspectives of Kenyan Immigrant Students Labeled With Dis/Abilities and Their Families - Sylvia Nabwire Nyegenye, EasterSeals

Discussant

• Shanee A. Washington, University of Washington