The Physical, Discursive, and Pedagogical Imprisonment of Students With Severe Disability Labels

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Considering the Sociospatial for True Equity and Justice in Education (Table 27)

Abstract

This study addresses ways in which students with severe disability labels are imprisoned within a public separate school. We put forward three ways in which imprisonment occurs: (a) segregation and confinement in the separate school setting, (b) physical restraint and seclusion within classroom spaces; and (c) discursive performances of disabling pedagogy that are rooted in so-called evidence-based practices in special education. We also draw socio-contextual parallels between the imprisonment of so-called disabled bodies with the imprisonment of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Immigrant experiences, past and present.

Authors

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

• Karen Erickson

• Nitasha M. Clark, The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill