“I Knew I Had It Good, but I Didn’t Know Just How Good Until This Class”: Learning About Race and Disability Toward Educational Justice

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Awareness and Agency at Intersections of Identity As/Including Disability (Table 22)

Abstract

This paper will discuss student learning about race and disability together as mutually constituted identities within interlocking social systems. This learning is situated in the context of a course where students took up theories of intersectionality, social constructionism, and first-person narratives. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of pre- and post- course education journey maps for 30 students (n = 60), who participated in an asynchronous online course. Broadly, students were able to reflect on and name racism as a system of oppression more often than ableism. We noted a resistance to understanding disability as a social construct within a system of oppression. This study contributes to knowledge of teaching and learning about race, disability, and intersectionality.

Authors

• Carlyn Mueller, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Aditi Rajendran, University of Minnesota