Imagining Antiracist and Neurodiversity-Affirming Educational Spaces: An Exploration of Neurodiversity in Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The five papers in this Symposium present an intersectional analysis of neurodiversity, race, and racism in education and imagines how educational spaces can be free of racial injustice for racially marginalized neurodivergent students. All the papers are dedicated to imagining an intersectional neurodiversity-affirming praxis that embeds anti-ableist and anti-racist theoretical foundations to upend oppressive and discriminatory attitudes and pedagogies aimed at multiply marginalized neurodivergent populations. Given the scarcity of education scholarship residing at the intersection of neurodiversity and racial injustice this symposium creates space for novel discussions at these intersections. Conclusions from this symposium will collectively imagine anti-racist education for racially marginalized neurodivergent students and concrete actions to take toward the intersection of neurodiversity-affirming, anti-ableist, and anti-racist praxis for ALL.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Disability Studies in Education

Chair

• Marisa Kofke, SUNY - College at Brockport

Papers

• Weaving DisCrit and Neurodiversity Studies: A Theoretical Literature Review - Marisa Kofke, SUNY - College at Brockport; Meaghan Krazinski, Syracuse University

• An Intersectional Interrogation on Neurodivergent Labeling: A Critical Collective Autoethnographic Dialogue - Mercedes Adell Cannon, Indiana University - Indianapolis; David I. Hernandez-Saca, University of Northern Iowa; Rachelle M. Johnson, Florida State University

• Rethinking Neurodiversity Activism and Intersectional Experiences in Higher Education - Laurie Gutmann Kahn, Moravian University; Saili S. Kulkarni, San Jose State University

• Neuroqueering as Resistance: “We’re More Than What the People Who Run Our Country Perceive Us As” - Angela Ingram, Purdue University - Northwest; Shari Rosen, Essential Learning Group

• When First Grade Is Too Late: Exploring Neurodiversity, Race, and the School-to-Prison Nexus in Teacher Education - Dana Morrison, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Discussant

• Nirmala Erevelles, University of Alabama