Harm Reduction in the Practical Reality of Schools: A Critical Special Education Framing

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Approaches to Reimagining Teacher Education (Table 6)

Abstract

Students with disabilities experience physical, emotional, intellectual, and social harms in schools today. Disability Studies in Education (DSE) has made significant strides towards identifying how ableism functions within special education and offers examples of alternatives. However, DSE is not yet able to answer, for special educators, “what can I do tomorrow to do less harm?” In this paper we (re)introduce Critical Special Education as a framing that intentionally holds in tension the realities of existing special education structures and the ambitions reflected by DSE. We share the Critical Special Education framework, connect to existing enactments of Critical Special Education, and illustrate how Critical Special Education might look in a teacher education context.

Authors

• Katherine Lewis, University of Washington

• Erica N. Mason, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign