Toward Inclusive Flourishing: Centering Culture and Disability in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Reimagining Inclusion and Equity in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This conceptual paper reconceptualizes the PERMA well-being framework to promote inclusive flourishing for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children with disabilities. Anchored in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), with Disability-Sustaining Pedagogy (DSP) as an integrated perspective and the Social Model of Disability as a supportive lens, this paper critiques the individualistic and Western-centric assumptions embedded in positive education. Each PERMA element is reframed to affirm students’ cultural and disability identities, expand access to inclusive practices, and foster justice-oriented belonging. In doing so, the paper offers a transformative model of well-being that resists deficit paradigms and centers pride, participation, and relational accountability by reimagining what it means for CLD children with disabilities to flourish in educational contexts.

Authors

• Youme Kim, University of Kansas

• Gregory Cheatham, University of Kansas