Deconstructing Normal: What Preservice Teachers Learn From Reading the Narrative "Normal Sucks," by Jonathan Mooney

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  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Teaching Praxis (Table 41)

Abstract

Many students with disabilities are denied opportunities in schools because of the ways in which disability is conceptualized. This study focuses on teacher education as a context in which preservice educators can confront and unsettle their understandings and misunderstandings about ability and disability. We examined how 21 preservice teachers responded to reading Jonathan Mooney’s (2019) book, Normal Sucks, in an undergraduate teacher education course by analyzing their annotations made in a digital reading environment. Findings suggest that engagement with this narrative allowed teachers to deconstruct “normal” and form DSE-compatible ideas about disability and teaching.

Authors

• Cheryl Jones, Montclair State University

• Susan Baglieri, Montclair State University