The Lessons of Navigating Two Worlds

• In Event: Rethinking Teacher Preparation: Disrupting Marginalization of Children of Color With (Dis)Abilities

Abstract

My experiences an Iranian-American, a sister of an individual with a dis/ability, a mother, and an educator influence my positionality. I was raised with two different cultures and learned to navigate between the two distinct worlds. These experiences have prompted me to investigate the influences of culture, ethnicity, dis/ability, and faith on how we can cultivate greater educational equity among marginalized families of children with dis/abilities navigating the special education system.
As a non-Spanish speaking parent at a dual immersion school, I have glimpsed the difficulties immigrant families face when navigating American schools and the “special” education system, since cultural, home language, customs, and cultural expectations are different from the dominant school culture. This had made me more aware of allied efforts to include and cultivate equity for all families.
As a former “special” education teacher, current professor, and mother versed in schooling practices within the dominant society, I recognize that schools impose certain practices and expectations that are not culturally appropriate to assume of all families and learners. The pandemic highlighted how schools continue to operate in ways that reproduce dominant societies beliefs regarding the hegemony of normalcy (Davis, 2010), and the reproduction of dominant ideologies and knowledge (Giroux, 1983; Bourdieu, 1977).
The lack of preparation of service providers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students labeled with dis/abilities also becomes apparent. I recognize the problematic nature of service providers work in isolation as well as the importance of future teacher educators to be aware of the “danger of a single story” (Adichie, 2009). Problematizing how we have previously framed the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse students with dis/abilities and their families can offer new and improved communication and interaction.
As a mother, I strive to be inclusive in my interactions with families of children with diverse needs. The necessity for inclusion became visible to me when I learned from the lived experiences of Iranian-American mothers raising children with dis/abilities (Author, 2017). During this pandemic, I also recognized that the needs of all culturally and linguistically diverse mothers are not all the same. Therefore, disrupting the idea of a “single story” became even more important to me.
As a result of my intersecting identities and experiences, I feel the need to continuously work towards disrupting patterns and expectations imposed by the dominant society for culturally and linguistically diverse families of students with dis/abilities. In my teaching, I strive to disrupt the idea of a “single story” by incorporating the voices of women of color, women who navigate the special education system (Sauer & Rossetti, 2020), black and brown women in academia who necessitate teaching through an equity framework while attending to the oppression and violence faced by students of color (Muhammad, 2020; Love, 2019), and women offering ideas to improve teacher education based and on the experiences of women of color with dis/abilities who experience racial violence and oppression daily (Annamma, 2015).

Author

• Kimiya Sohrab Maghzi, University of Redlands