Unforgetting Disability Histories: Mapping Teachers’ Professional Histories for Historical Consciousness

• In Event: Reframing Teacher Preparation and Praxis Through Disability, Culture, and Teacher Identity

Abstract

Ignorance of historical injustice sustains present inequity, as educators reproduce distorted pasts in their instruction. For teachers of students with disabilities, the erasure of critical disability histories—institutionalization, eugenics, resistance—constrains recognition of ableism’s intersections with racism, colonialism, and gender regimes. This study draws on Critical Disability Studies, decolonial theory, and critical history education to analyze interviews and historical self-mapping with nine in-service educators. I examine how teachers narrate the past and how omissions of history shape identity. Findings show: (a) pervasive absences of disability history; (b) thin historical consciousness that relegates oppression to the past; and (c) progress myths that obscure ongoing inequity. I propose CDS-aligned professional learning with critical disability histories and reflexive tools to historicize teacher identity.

Author

• Marie Wagner, Rockhurst University