Dialogue Without Conventional Language: Students With Severe Disability Labels Engage in Dialogic Relationships

• In Event: (Re)Conceptualizing Education Grounded in Student Experiences and Perspectives

Abstract

This paper draws from disability studies in education (Connor, 2008; Goodley, 2016) and Wegerif’s theory of dialogic interaction (2011a) in order to explore the varied ways students with severe disability labels in a separate school setting engaged in relationship and dialogue without the use of conventional language, despite the often restrictive contexts of their school environment. Findings illustrate how a dialogic view of interaction invites educators to reimagine how to perceive and engage in relationship with students with severe disability labels, and to reconsider what the horizons are for these students, for their thinking and learning, for their education, and for their lives in a less ableist world.

Authors

• Charna D'Ardenne, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Karen Erickson