Applying Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) in the Practice of Teacher Education in Italy

• In Event: Challenging Dysconscious Ableism and Dreaming Beyond Pathology in Teacher Education

Abstract

Purpose
In the European context, and indeed internationally, the Italian education system has been defined as exemplary in terms of inclusive policies and practices (Ferri, 2019). However, a disproportionate number of non-dominant, racial and ethnic groups from the immigrant population continue to be referred to and labeled as having Special Educational Needs (SEN) (Author 1 et al., 2019). This paper sheds light on teachers’ dysconscious ableism, while actively working to include students living at the intersections of race, language, disability, and undocumentedness. Also, it highlights how working collaboratively to apply DisCrit to existing inclusive practices helps in reducing teachers’ distorted understandings of the ways multiply marginalized students are oppressed, how these oppressions are reproduced in the classroom, and what teachers can do to resist these oppressions via pedagogy, curriculum and relationships, while repositioning students and families as valuable collaborators (Author 1 & Annamma, 2019).

Theoretical Framework
Following the significant increase in the number of migrant students with SEN (Ministero Dell’istruzione & Della Ricerca, 2014), and the color-evasive and ableist attitudes of Italian teachers when discussing race and racism in schools (Author 1, 2018), it is important to use DisCrit to help them recognizing how ability and race are interconnected and influence what constitutes the ‘norm’, as the desired social standard (Annamma et al., 2013; Banks, 2017). For the purpose of this paper, we highlight Tenet 1, which highlights how racism and ableism circulate interdependently; Tenet 3, which offers that the constructs of race and ability are built into the social consciousness and that these productions have material consequences; and Tenet 5, which considers legal and historical aspects of disability and race and how they have been used separately and together to deny the rights of some citizens.

Methods & Data Sources
Data presented in this paper were collected during a qualitative pilot case study conducted with school professionals in a comprehensive school in Rome in the fall of 2020. Data collection for the pilot case study involved two focus groups with four white Italian school teachers. Our study sample was limited due to accessibility issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We chose school professionals because of their roles, their engagement with inclusion and diversity in the school, and their number of years in service.

Findings
Dysconscious ableism is presented here through three vignettes, in which teachers talk about an undocumented child from Cabo Verde, and two undocumented children from Ecuador. The vignettes show how Italian teachers use students’ proximity to the white Italian norm and nondisabled status as metrics for ascertaining their ability or belonging in certain learning contexts. We also show teachers’ quotes, after a familiarization period with DisCrit. These show a major shift from considering inequities as natural, to understanding of disabling processes leading to the exclusion of multiply marginalized students.

Significance
The study expands generalizable knowledge in the field of teacher education, contributing to a shift towards an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, rooted in solidarity with historically multiply-marginalized communities.

Authors

• Valentina Migliarini, University of Birmingham
  Presenting Author

• Brent C. Elder, Rowan University
  Presenting Author