A Critical Review of Traditional Special Education’s Response to Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit)

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Intersections: Examining Race, Class, and Disability in Educational Discourse (Table 10)

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of two recent articles evaluating DisCrit written by prominent traditional special education scholars in a recent issue of Exceptionality. A conceptual framework based on Brantlinger’s (1997) work on ideology and qualitative coding were used to answer the following research questions: What ideological themes appear within critiques of DisCrit made by traditional special education scholars? How do these uses of ideology connect to previous criticism by traditionalists of DSE, inclusion, and social models of disability? This review analyzed how traditional special education scholars used ideology to discount DisCrit theorists’ work highlighting the interconnectedness of race and disability. Traditional special education scholars continued to claim neutrality even as they employed ideology in their responses to DisCrit.

Author

• Armineh Hallaran, City College of New York - CUNY