A Call for Dis/Ability Affirming Writing Instruction in Youth Carceral Education

• In Event: Centering the Voices of Disabled Learners

Abstract

Writing serves as a tool for thinking, learning, and reflecting in addition to communicating and expressing oneself (NCTE, 2022). The teaching of writing is also complex. Writing instruction in the U.S. typically uses a foundation of historically Eurocentric, neurotypical norms to assess student writing quality and provide instruction that reinforces those norms (Chavez, 2021). This is crucial to consider for dis/abled youth experiencing incarceration because this population is more vulnerable to harm due to being multiply marginalized in problematic carceral settings. This presentation will describe how a systematic literature review of writing in youth carceral settings revealed the need for a dis/ability affirming writing instruction framework and the conceptualization of that framework.

Author

• Alexandra Wolf, University of Massachusetts - Amherst