Subversive Pedagogies and Critical Special Education in an Era of Surveillance and Silencing

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium brings together scholars & practitioners redesigning special education coursework within undergraduate teacher education programs in racially & linguistically diverse urban communities. Rooted in DisCrit, fugitive pedagogy, & autoethnography, we critically examine how special education faculty respond to political attacks on inclusive curricula & "divisive concepts" legislation. Each paper documents an aspect of programmatic/curricular resistance within teacher preparation programs that serve Black & immigrant students in the American South. Together, these papers offer a response to AERA’s theme by addressing how histories of racialized and ableist exclusion inform present-day educational restrictions & by imagining liberatory futures through justice-centered curriculum design. This symposium reflects a collective commitment to resisting the erasure of multiply marginalized identities and to building pedagogical futures that are anti-ableist, anti-racist, & rooted in truth.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Special and Inclusive Education Research

Chair

• Elizabeth Holliday Morgan, Morgan State University

Papers

• Imagining Inclusive Futures in Teacher Education Through Program Redesign - Keishana L. Barnes, University of Memphis; William C. Hunter, University of Memphis

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

• Towards Critically Inclusive Teacher Education: Fostering Critical Perspectives of Dis/ability amongst Preservice Teachers - Kayla Larkin, University of Memphis; Vanessa Lopez, University of Miami

• Designing a Critical Special Education Syllabus Amid Divisive Concept Laws: An Autoethnographic Account in an Undergraduate Teacher Education Program - Suman Rath, Montclair State University

Session Organizer

• Kayla Larkin, University of Memphis

Discussant

• William C. Hunter, University of Memphis