The Absence of Black Boy Joy: The Real Experts are Students and Their Parents

• In Event: Disabled Youth’s Cultural Ways of Being, Knowing, and Doing in Education: Implications and Strategies

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes
Author A entered school for the first time at age five, only to find himself confined in a seclusion room within three months of starting. This harsh treatment left him distressed until his parents intervened. This incident underscores broader issues in education where Black parental insights are often disregarded, highlighting systemic biases against Black boys and their families in special education settings (Mayes, 2023).

We ask: 1) How does Author A feel about his positive and negative special and general education and disability labeling experiences? and 2) What is Author A’s and his mother’s ways of being/knowing that serve as strategies or resources for healing the physical, social, emotional, spiritual harm enacted at his intersections of race and dis/Ability in special and general education?

Perspective(s)/Framework
This study employs qualitative research, drawing on Womanist Theology and Pedagogy (Walker, 1968), Affective Spiritual Intersectional Disablism (Author 3 et al., 2020) and a Spiritual Paradigm (Dillard, 2008), to center Author A’s and B’s experiences within the special education system. It questions how disabled identities and knowledges can be empowering resources amidst the physical, social, and emotional harms perpetuated by educational practices.

Methods:
We used a case study design (Yin, 2018) combined with arts-based methods within Disability Studies (Allen, 2019) to explore the lived experiences of Author A and his mother, Author B, in special education, focusing on race, gender, and disability. A case study investigates a "bounded system" such as an individual or group (Brantlinger et al., 2005). Their experiences are systemic, not situational. Arts-based research methods helped present a counter-narrative to dominant narratives affecting their lives. Arts-based inquiry (Finley, 2008) addresses social inequities and supports critical theories, aligning with our conceptual framework to counteract systemic positioning in education (Boveda & Annamma, 2023).

Data sources:
The data collection includes various sources, such as personal and professional relationships between Author A, his mother, and the research team members (Authors C-E), spanning over five years (Author 3 et al., 2021). Additional sources include previous publications and outlets (podcasts, zines), Zoom recordings, group text messages, pictures, journal entries, course and professional PowerPoint presentations, and memos.

For data analysis, we employed qualitative content analysis methodology (Humble & Mozelius, 2022) ranging from impressionistic to systematic text analyses. We used "conventional content analysis" (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005), involving immersion in data, deriving and labeling codes, creating categories, and fine-tuning definitions with examples directly from the data.

Results
Author B’s story about her son, Author A, highlights several themes that revolve around the struggles of navigating a flawed educational system and the impact of systemic racism and ableism including: parental helplessness and frustration, systemic barrier and institutional racism, misdiagnosis and misunderstanding of child behavior, negative labeling and stigmatization and the impact of school environment on children’s mental health among many others.

Significance:
Our study aims to dismantle stigma and advocate for democratic inclusive, equitable educational practices that honor the expertise of Black families in ways that can inform current and future pedagogical practice.

Authors

• Cedric Johnson

• Joyce A. Levingston, University of Northern Iowa

• Belinda Creighton-Smith, University of Northern Iowa

• Scott Ellison, University of Northern Iowa

• David I. Hernandez-Saca, University of Northern Iowa