Embodied Dialogue: Students Labeled With Severe Disabilities Redefine Narrative

• In Event: (Re)Thinking Discursive Practices to Center Disability

Abstract

In this study we draw from feminist disability studies (Garland-Thompson, 2005; Hall, 2002) and embodiment theory (Freiler, 2018), to illustrate the ways that a student labeled with severe disabilities established an embodied dialogue with a researcher. Findings illustrate the way the student was able to initiate interactions and physical activities and vary her communication in response to the shifting relation she had with the researcher. When the researcher positioned herself as the novice, space was made for the student to become the leader and teacher in the construction of their dialogic narrative. Data reveal the ways that students with severe disability labels engage in embodied dialogue over time when adults attend to and build upon their embodied forms of communication.

Authors

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

• Karen Erickson