The Special Education Coordinator Perspective: Restoring Humanity in Special Education

• In Event: Fighting for Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Schools Under a New Administration

Abstract

Objectives
As a district-level special education administrator, this author uses the lens of abolitionist teaching to examine how educators can be culturally responsive in working with students and families. Her chapter in our edited volume told the story of her work mediating a conflict between educators and the family of a kindergartner who was misunderstood and mistreated. In this reflective commentary, this system-level leader critiques current federal education policies that are likely to negatively impact students with disabilities, immigrant students, and their families by silencing the types of open conversations that can enable communication and human connection. She asserts that schools and districts need to maintain culturally responsive practices as they partner with and advocate for students and families.

Theoretical Framework & Modes of Inquiry
Drawing on narrative inquiry, this special education coordinator emphasizes abolitionist teaching and transformative justice as frameworks for understanding how schools can be sites for restoring students’ humanity by dismantling policies and practices rooted in deficit thinking and systemic racism. She also uses her own experiences as a mediator to examine how policy mandates impede the ethical responsibilities of educators and mediators.

Evidence
In examining her experiences within the field of special education, this educator looks to the narratives from the immigrant students and families she has worked with to illustrate the harms of deficit-oriented policies. She also analyses recent federal education policies that limit discussion of race, culture, and equity in schools, and provides evidence to illustrate how these policies could increase tensions and mistrust between schools and families.

Arguments
Responding to new governmental restrictions, this commentator argues that restrictive policies exacerbate power imbalances between schools and families, particularly for immigrant families and parents of color. She further asserts that when educators are discouraged from acknowledging culture, language, and systemic barriers in their partnerships with students and families, deficit thinking can prevail and undermine students’ educational and emotional growth. Asserting the need for an abolitionist stance in response to policy changes, this educator argues that we must center empathy, cultural understanding, and transformative justice in our schools, especially in special education.

Significance
This commentary demonstrates how systems-level leaders must view special education practices as human rights endeavors that empower students, families, and communities. To this end, this special education leader positions her own work as resistance to compliance-only approaches and argues instead for the importance of humanizing, reciprocal relationships among educators, students, and families. She reminds us that real change begins with listening, empathy, and care.

Author

• Kristin Vogel-Campbell, North Point Educational Service Center