“Difficult Days Ahead”: An Autoethnography of an Inaugural Critical Special Education Course amidst Controversial Topic Laws

• In Event: Subversive Pedagogies and Critical Special Education in an Era of Surveillance and Silencing

Abstract

Memphis, Tennessee is a site of historical significance in the fight for liberation against state-sanctioned violence, including epistemic violence via controversial topic laws. This landscape is exacerbated by the context of teacher education, which has historically failed to repair systemic harm against students of color and students with dis/abilities. Understanding that there are what Dr. King called “difficult days ahead,” the current sociopolitical climate highlights the need for continued resistance and subversive pedagogy in teacher education. Using autoethnography and self-reflection as a means to reimagine teacher education, this session documents the process of developing subversive coursework in an inaugural special education course amidst controversial topic laws.

Fugitive pedagogy and DisCrit theory guided our work. Fugitive Pedagogy functions as a robust theoretical framework that explains the covert educational strategies used by Black educators to resist systemic oppression and affirm Black identity within hostile academic environments. This framework emphasizes the intentionality behind such pedagogical acts, framing them as deliberate efforts to cultivate critical consciousness. By framing fugitive pedagogy as a theoretical construct, scholars and educators can better understand and implement strategies that disrupt oppressive educational paradigms and promote equity. The design of this study was also informed by DisCrit theory. In wrestling with the question of how to build critically inclusive teacher education programs in the context of controversial topic laws, this course and autoethnographic study sought to challenge perpetuations of racism and ableism as well as singular, socially constructed identities.

Autoethnography allowed us as researchers to examine our own experiences to gain insights into broader social and cultural phenomena. This method emphasizes reflexivity and provides a nuanced understanding of how individual experiences are shaped by and contribute to cultural norms and practices. It is a valuable tool for exploring issues related to identity, power, and social justice.

Data included departmental planning sessions and check-ins, including meeting notes, texts, emails, and phone calls, as well as correspondence with students through emails, student surveys, Zoom meetings, discussion board posts, and submitted coursework assignments.

Preservice teachers showed a range of responses to fugitive coursework, from embracing new learning and expressing an interest in continuing to expand their self-awareness and advocacy to dismissing the content as irrelevant to teaching. A small minority showed implicit resistance while others demonstrated more overt resistance. Certain topics such as bias and identity were met with more resistance and risk.
Team notes from across the semester capture how our team navigated pursuing fugitive pedagogy in the context of a state with controversial topic laws, and how we created a plan to distribute pertinent course topics throughout other undergraduate special education courses in order to maintain a cohesive vision for critically inclusive special education programming and model critical inclusivity as a collective core value to our preservice teachers.

This paper extends the critique of teacher education programs through self-interrogation and fugitive pedagogy. It is an invitation to self-reflect and a call to bring about systemic change. It is a call for subversive pedagogy and teaching that reimagines teacher education coursework as a valuable form of resistance amidst the current sociopolitical context.

Authors

• Kayla Larkin, University of Memphis

• Keishana L. Barnes, University of Memphis

• William C. Hunter, University of Memphis

• LaSheba Hilliard, University of Memphis

• Suman Rath, Montclair State University