Equity-Oriented Speculative Design: Reorganizing Bilingual Special Education Teacher Education

• In Event: Reconfigurations of Bilingual Special/Inclusive Education Through Speculative Design Experiments

Abstract

Purpose
Bilingual students with disabilities often encounter marginalization at the intersection of race/ethnicity, ability, language, and other social markers (Ortiz et al., 2020). Extensive research has reported persistent challenges in disability referral, assessment, and service provision processes (e.g., Klingner & Harry, 2014). Addressing bilinguals’ unique learning needs arising from their intersectional identity requires transformative teacher education programs that foster equity-oriented teachers (Authors, 2020). This proposal introduces a speculative experiment aimed at re-creating a bilingual special education course that utilizes an intersectional matrix of power and privilege to cultivate inservice teachers’ new professional reflexivity, empowering them to become change agents.

Theoretical Framework
We have adopted “social design experiments” (Gutiérrez et al., 2009) to reorganize learning spaces with transformative tools, along with emancipatory future imaginations. Speculative design in teacher education aims to create an expansive learning space that enables teachers to critically reflect on the historical entanglements of racism, ableism, linguicism, and other forms of intersectional oppression. This space aims to nurture teachers’ sociopolitical imaginations to re-envision equity-oriented classrooms for historically marginalized students. (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2010; Philip et al., 2022).

Methods & Data Sources
We conducted an ethnographic case study to explore the epistemic growth of 22 K-12 teachers participating in an equity-oriented bilingual special education course. In this social design experiment, we incorporated transformative tools (e.g., reflection essays, interactive discussion posts, photovoice, and action plans) within the course to help teachers develop a situated understanding of complex and intersectional marginalization, and inspiring them to envision equity-oriented classrooms. For data analysis, we employed an open-coding approach (Charmaz, 2014). The coded data were categorized and thematically synthesized. To ensure the trustworthiness of our findings, we utilized reflective notes and triangulation methods.

Results
Several key findings emerged from the analysis of multiple artifacts. Most participants exhibited demographics typical of bilingual students and shared their own experiences of facing intersectional discrimination in both school and society. This discrimination primarily stemmed from the intersection of linguicism, xenophobia, and ableism, particularly concerning their bilingual or im/migrant features. Upon reflection, many participants revealed that they used to internalize blame, remaining unaware of intersectional social oppression. However, as their perspectives transformed, they no longer took for granted the monolingual English-driven ableist ideals. While growing up and residing in a border city with a Hispanic/Latino racial majority, these teachers hardly resonated with the racial disproportionality in special education as a social phenomenon. Nonetheless, the analysis confirms that transformative tools endorsed in the course facilitated their epiphanies of ongoing racism within and beyond their local contexts.

Scholarly Significance
The scholarly significance of this social design experiment lies in the recognition that teachers, despite their shared intersectional identities and lived experiences with bilingual students, are not inherently prepared to advocate for them. Therefore, the experiment underscores the importance of providing a transformative learning space through equity-oriented coursework. This coursework becomes essential to expand their intersectional, historicized, and locally situated understanding of racialized disparities in education, enabling teachers to become effective change agents.

Authors

• Sumin Lim, Hunter College

• Dosun Ko, Santa Clara University