Unequal Access: Examining Interrelated Factors Involved in Special Education and Postsecondary Education Entry

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 12:40 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Access in Academia: Diverse Perspectives on Disability in Higher Education (Table 4)

Abstract

For this presentation, we sought to uncover how different communities of students access and engage with special education, particularly in relation to time of entry and postsecondary outcomes. We adopted a mixed methods approach drawing on Ontario-based qualitative data and quantitative data from one of Canada’s largest school boards. We theorize how disability is utilized as a commodity fetish (Author, 2011) in the context of special education, resulting in disparate outcomes along the axes of race and class. We argue that early entry into special education is largely institutionally driven, based on racist and classist notions of normalcy. Conversely, high school entry is disproportionately driven by white, affluent families utilizing the special education system to smooth pathways to postsecondary education.

Authors

• Gillian Parekh, York University

• Nirmala Erevelles, University of Alabama

• Katherine Barron, York University

• Robert Stewart Brown, Toronto District School Board