(How) Do We Ask?: Unlearning Mainstream Disability Axiology, Epistemology, and Ontology to Inform Asset Pedagogies

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

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes:
Asset pedagogies sustain and affirm students with disabilities and are informed by disability axiologies (value systems), epistemologies (knowledges), and ontologies (framings) of disabled youth of color. As faculty responsible for preparing future educators, we discuss the necessity of and illustrate our own engagement in transforming mainstream values, knowledges, and framings about disability that are emphasized in special education teacher preparation. Through our analysis of personal experiences and the scholarship of several disabled scholars/activists of color, we generate three lessons for expanding asset pedagogies to center disabled ways of valuing, knowing, and defining disability identity and experience.

Perspective(s)/Framework:
We critique mainstream special education axiology, epistemology, and ontology that frames disability as undesirable, and draw from disability axiologies, epistemologies, and ontologies developed by disabled scholars and activists of color (e.g., Skelton, 2022) at the intersection of disability studies in education. We also apply critical theories including intersectional feminist and queer theories (Wendell, 1996) and critical race analyses that account for axiology, ontology, and epistemology of disability at the intersection of race, racism, colonialism, and heterosexism in school and society (e.g., Berne et al., 2018, Erevelles, 2018, Henry & Foley, 2017). Finally, we apply Author 1 et al.’s rightful presence (2020) to the generation of lessons for future practice.

Methods:
We analyze our own experiences as education practitioners, along with scholarship by disabled scholars/activists of color to trace the impact of mainstream axiology, epistemology, and ontology on disabled students of color. We draw from these authors’ work to illustrate their impact on our own valuing and framing disability. As individuals at several marginalized identity intersections, but who do not consistently claim disability identity, we describe the impact of their work on our teacher learning practices toward Author 1 et al.’s (2020) notion of rightful presence. Briefly, rightful presence aims to reshape environments by 1) recognizing all aspects of identity, 2) addressing systemic inequities; 3) moving beyond token representation toward meaningful participation; 4) transforming policies, practices, and norms; 5) emphasizing agency and empowerment; 6) promoting community, and; 7) ensuring accountability.

Data sources:
Our data sources include first-hand experiences as former PK-12 educators, along with existing literature and creative works from several prominent disabled scholars and activists of color with emphasis on the contributions of Author 3 et al. (2018a, 2018b), Forber Pratt and Zape (2017), and Skelton (2019).

Results:
Our analysis yielded three lessons for extending asset pedagogy for disabled youth in schools: (1) notice and problematize the absence of disabled youth and their bodyminds, perspectives, and experiences from formal and informal curriculum; (2) create opportunities for affinity and relationship building with other disabled youth in inclusive and identity-centered academic and social settings and experiences; and (3) challenge traditional notions of normalcy (Author 4, 2016). Collectively, these lessons center disabled youth’s ways of knowing and navigating the world rather than focusing on conformity to non-disabled standards.

Significance:
Our findings contribute expanded application of asset pedagogy and related approaches to educating disabled youth at multiple identity intersections in special education and beyond.

Authors

• Kathleen A. King Thorius, Arizona State University

• Kristina Johnson-Yates, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Kathryn Rusnak, Purdue University