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Their American Dream, Danne Davis Apr 2020

Their American Dream, Danne Davis

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Centuries before W.E.B. DuBois named the colorline—i.e., racism—as the problem of the 20th century, skin color stratification was a persistent phenomenon. In 1983 Black feminist, scholar, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker termed “colorism” as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their [skin] color”. Using the tools of genealogy, I conducted a critical family history of my parents, Lem and Mae’s, pursuit of their American Dream. Such exploration digs deep to decipher the nexuses of a family’s evolution. Dr. Maya Angelou routinely shared stories about her past to impart the importance of embracing one’s history. …


Rethinking “We Are All Special”: Anti-Ableism Curricula In Early Childhood Classrooms, Priya Lalvani, Jessica Bacon Jun 2019

Rethinking “We Are All Special”: Anti-Ableism Curricula In Early Childhood Classrooms, Priya Lalvani, Jessica Bacon

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of Neoliberal School Choice Reforms On Students With Disabilities: Perspectives From New York City, Jessica Bacon Jan 2019

The Impact Of Neoliberal School Choice Reforms On Students With Disabilities: Perspectives From New York City, Jessica Bacon

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This disability studies in education informed study unpacks effects of neoliberal reforms on students with disabilities in New York City schools. These reforms proliferated small themed schools, dismantled many large schools, and required students to apply to high school. This multi-site case study researched two high schools, one large and one small, with data from interviews and document review. Findings reveal how reforms forced large schools to accept many marginalized students with disabilities, while small schools employed tactics to avoid accepting many students with disabilities seen as having intensive needs. Finally, contextual analysis reveals how larger city politics perpetuated segregative …


Active Solidarity: Centering The Demands And Vision Of The Black Lives Matter Movement In Teacher Education, Edwin Mayorga, Bree Picower Feb 2018

Active Solidarity: Centering The Demands And Vision Of The Black Lives Matter Movement In Teacher Education, Edwin Mayorga, Bree Picower

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

In the era of Black Lives Matter (#BLM), urban teacher education does not exist in isolation. The White supremacist, neoliberal context that impacts all aspects of Black lives also serves to support antiblackness within the structures of teacher education. In this article, the authors, who are grounded in a race radical analytical and political framework, share a vision of what it means to be an urban teacher who actively understands and teaches in solidarity with #BLM. The authors unpack their theoretical framework and the vision of #BLM while examining the state of teacher education in this era of neoliberal multiculturalism. …


Dysconscious Ableism: Toward A Liberatory Praxis In Teacher Education, Alicia Broderick, Priya Lalvani Sep 2017

Dysconscious Ableism: Toward A Liberatory Praxis In Teacher Education, Alicia Broderick, Priya Lalvani

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This study draws upon King’s [1991. “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers.” Journal of Negro Education 60 (2): 133–146] concept of dysconscious racism, extrapolating from it the analogous conceptual device of dysconscious ableism. We report upon data drawn from an inquiry at a US university-based teacher preparation programme, wherein we analyse our teacher education candidates’ writing through the conceptual lens of dysconscious ableism, to better understand their conceptualisations of dis/ability, and their understanding of existing examples of educational segregation based upon those conceptualisations. We make an argument for the necessity of engaging in studies of ableism in …


“It’S Like Breathing In Blue Skies And Breathing Out Stormy Clouds” Mindfulness Practices In Early Childhood, Elizabeth Erwin, Kimberly A. Robinson, Greg S. Mcgrath, Corrine J. Harney Jun 2017

“It’S Like Breathing In Blue Skies And Breathing Out Stormy Clouds” Mindfulness Practices In Early Childhood, Elizabeth Erwin, Kimberly A. Robinson, Greg S. Mcgrath, Corrine J. Harney

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


From Advocacy To Activism: Families, Communities, And Collective Change, Janet Story Sauer, Priya Lalvani Mar 2017

From Advocacy To Activism: Families, Communities, And Collective Change, Janet Story Sauer, Priya Lalvani

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Although countries across the globe support the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), when faced with competing economic priorities, their policies and practices too often negatively impact children with disabilities and their families (Ferguson,). Current social and educational structures are implicated in inequitable services, particularly for those families from nondominant languages and minority racial and ethnic groups (McCall & Skrtic, Ong-Dean,). Recognizing the importance of contexts and power imbalances, we posit that the broader communities in which families live and that determine the opportunities they are afforded, should be explicitly addressed when evaluating a family's …


Transition Goals For Youth With Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Problems: Parent And Student Knowledge, Judith R. Harrison, Talida State, Howard P. Wills, Beth A. Custer, Elaine Miller Jan 2017

Transition Goals For Youth With Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Problems: Parent And Student Knowledge, Judith R. Harrison, Talida State, Howard P. Wills, Beth A. Custer, Elaine Miller

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Transition planning is a mandated component of individualized education plans (IEPs) designed to ensure successful transition to adult life for students with disabilities. Students with social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs experience poor post-school outcomes, suggesting a need for more effective transition planning. This study evaluated student and parent knowledge of employment and training goals in IEPs and the match between goals and student future planning. Ninety-three high school students and parents reported their IEP participation and knowledge of goals and responses were compared to goals in their IEPs. Results indicated that students and parents had limited knowledge of goals …


Studying Teacher Education, Brenna Bohny, Monica Taylor, Sa Qwona S. Clark, Susan D’Elia, Graziela Lobato-Creekmur, Stephanie Brown Tarnowski, Sara Wasserman Sep 2016

Studying Teacher Education, Brenna Bohny, Monica Taylor, Sa Qwona S. Clark, Susan D’Elia, Graziela Lobato-Creekmur, Stephanie Brown Tarnowski, Sara Wasserman

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Through a self-study methodology, six doctoral students and a professor examine how our semester long doctoral level class became a transformative space for all participants. We investigate how each individual was able to participate in the construction of a powerful and meaningful learning community, which led to a re-visioning of ourselves as women and teacher educators. Feminist pedagogy and positioning theory provide a guiding framework for both the class and our own reflective research. Our findings include, but are not limited to, showing how negotiating the curriculum led to a doctoral class becoming a safe space and how this negotiation …


Promoting Access Through Segregation: The Emergence Of The "Prioritized Curriculum" Class, Jessica Bacon, Carrie E. Rood, Beth A. Ferri Jan 2016

Promoting Access Through Segregation: The Emergence Of The "Prioritized Curriculum" Class, Jessica Bacon, Carrie E. Rood, Beth A. Ferri

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

The continuously evolving standards-based reform (SBR) movement is one of the most prominent features of today's educational policy landscape. As SBR has continued to drive educational policy, local schools and districts have adopted many approaches to comply with legal mandates. This article critically examines one particular resultant phenomenon of the SBR movement-the emergence of a new track of self-contained classes called Prioritized Curriculum classes, designed to provide students with disabilities access to standards-based general education curriculum, but in a segregated class. In this article we document the emergence of such courses and critically analyze the rationales and policy loopholes that …


Disability, Stigma And Otherness: Perspectives Of Parents And Teachers, Priya Lalvani Jul 2015

Disability, Stigma And Otherness: Perspectives Of Parents And Teachers, Priya Lalvani

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This qualitative study explored the perspectives of parents and teachers in the US with regard to the meaning and implications of disability in the context of schoolling, and of raising a child with a disability. The findings revealed broad conceptual differences in the perspectives of these two groups. Teachers’ beliefs were generally consistent with medical model perspectives on disability as biologically defined. Parents’ interpretations, more aligned with a sociocultural paradigm, were situated in the cultural meanings ascribed to disability and linked with issues of stigma, marginalisation and access. The findings also revealed the existence of master narratives on families of …


"It's A Two-Way Street": Examining How Trust, Diversity, And Contradiction Influence A Sense Of Community, Victoria Puig, Elizabeth Erwin, Tara L. Evenson, Madeleine Beresford Apr 2015

"It's A Two-Way Street": Examining How Trust, Diversity, And Contradiction Influence A Sense Of Community, Victoria Puig, Elizabeth Erwin, Tara L. Evenson, Madeleine Beresford

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

As interest in establishing and maintaining high-quality inclusive early childhood environments continues to grow, the population of children and families being served by these programs is becoming increasingly diverse. In response to these demographic and social trends, this study was conducted to explore how diversity is perceived within an early childhood inclusive environment. This participatory action research study was conceptualized and conducted over a 3-year period. Our collaborative research team, which reflected diversity across culture, race, gender, age, and professional discipline, used qualitative semistructured interviews to examine the question, "What does it mean to be fully inclusive across all aspects …


The Impact Of Standards-Based Reform: Applying Brantlinger's Critique Of Hierarchical Ideologies, Jessica Bacon, Beth Ferri Dec 2013

The Impact Of Standards-Based Reform: Applying Brantlinger's Critique Of Hierarchical Ideologies, Jessica Bacon, Beth Ferri

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Brantlinger's [2004b. "Ideologies Discerned, Values Determined: Getting past the Hierarchies of Special Education." In Ideology and the Politics of (in)Exclusion, edited by L. Ware, 11-31. New York: Peter Lang Publishing] critique of hierarchical ideologies lays bare the logics embedded in standards-based reform. Drawing on Brantlinger's insightful analysis, we trace how hierarchical ideologies impacted inclusive practice at one urban elementary school, deemed failing under the No Child Left Behind Act. Drawing on the qualitative analysis of data from interviews, public forums, and documents, we chart some of the negative effects of hierarchical ideologies on inclusive practice. We illustrate, for instance, how …


Privilege, Compromise, Or Social Justice: Teachers' Conceptualizations Of Inclusive Education, Priya Lalvani Jan 2013

Privilege, Compromise, Or Social Justice: Teachers' Conceptualizations Of Inclusive Education, Priya Lalvani

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This qualitative study explored the beliefs of teachers in the USA about the education of students with disabilities, focusing on their conceptualizations of inclusive education. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 30 teachers. The findings highlight multiple interpretations of inclusive education and suggest that teachers' support for inclusive education may be linked with the ways in which they conceptualize this practice. Most teachers' beliefs about the education of students with disabilities were embedded in dominant educational discourses that centered on the otherness of some students, and an unquestioned acceptance of implicit assumptions in special education. Findings support the need …


Community And Connection In Inclusive Early-Childhood Education: A Participatory Action Research Investigation, Elizabeth Erwin, Victoria Puig, Tara L. Evenson, Madeleine Beresford Dec 2012

Community And Connection In Inclusive Early-Childhood Education: A Participatory Action Research Investigation, Elizabeth Erwin, Victoria Puig, Tara L. Evenson, Madeleine Beresford

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

I really like that everything is matter of fact. The fact that my son doesn't talk as well as other kids-The other kids don't even really pay attention. It may be a little harder for them to understand him sometimes but [he's] just their friend. And that's the beauty of inclusion too. That it's dual-fold. The child in need has a model, which he desperately needed, but in turn the other children become tolerant and accepting of differences and don't see them as different. That's just the way [he] is. (Mother of a preschooler with disabilities.)


Parents' Participation In Special Education In The Context Of Implicit Educational Ideologies And Socioeconomic Status, Priya Lalvani Dec 2012

Parents' Participation In Special Education In The Context Of Implicit Educational Ideologies And Socioeconomic Status, Priya Lalvani

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This qualitative study situates parents' perceptions of their participation and role in special education planning in multiple contexts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 diverse parents of children with disabilities. The findings reveal the existence of special education discourses and practices that are entrenched in a deficit-based model and in implicit educational ideologies that sanction segregated education for many children with disabilities. Parents' perception of themselves as advocates was a key theme. Decisions about the placement of children with disabilities in inclusive classrooms appeared to be parent-driven. The findings shed light on the socioeconomic contexts in which family-professional partnerships and …


Teacher Activism: Enacting A Vision For Social Justice, Bree Picower Oct 2012

Teacher Activism: Enacting A Vision For Social Justice, Bree Picower

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This qualitative study focused on educators who participated in grassroots social justice groups to explore the role teacher activism can play in the struggle for educational justice. Findings show teacher activists made three overarching commitments: to reconcile their vision for justice with the realities of injustice around them; to work within their classrooms to create liberatory space; and to work collectively against oppression as activists. To enact these commitments, they engaged in particular practices common across the teachers despite their years in the classroom or their geographic location. A framework of teacher activism is revealed through the commitments and practices …


Teacher Counternarratives: Transgressing And Restorying Disability In Education, Alicia Broderick, Greta Hawkins, Stefanie Henze, Corinthia Mirasol-Spath, Rachel Pollack-Berkovits, Holly Prozzo Clune, Elizabeth Skovera, Christina Steel Aug 2012

Teacher Counternarratives: Transgressing And Restorying Disability In Education, Alicia Broderick, Greta Hawkins, Stefanie Henze, Corinthia Mirasol-Spath, Rachel Pollack-Berkovits, Holly Prozzo Clune, Elizabeth Skovera, Christina Steel

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This inquiry aims to explore the disconnect between the disability studies in education (DSE) perspectives on inclusive schooling held by a group of dually certified inclusive educators and the everyday, lived experiences of these same teachers who find themselves teaching students with labelled disabilities within the confines of the special education bureaucracy. Through a collaborative inquiry circle (with a teacher educator who is a faculty member in a dual-certification programme informed by a DSE perspective and seven teachers who are graduates of this teacher education programme), this study aims to: (1) articulate the dominant narratives or storylines about disability in …


Using Their Words: Six Elements Of Social Justice Curriculum Design For The Elementary Classroom, Bree Picower Jan 2012

Using Their Words: Six Elements Of Social Justice Curriculum Design For The Elementary Classroom, Bree Picower

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This article provides a framework of six elements of social justice curriculum design for elementary classrooms. The elements move from students learning self-love and knowledge about who they are and where they come from to learning respect for people different from themselves. Students explore social injustice, learn about social movements, raise awareness, and engage in activism. By addressing all six elements, students develop an analysis of oppression and tools to take action. The elements help teachers visualize social justice education by providing examples of projects, making social justice in K-6 settings accessible, practical, and achievable.


Disability Studies In Education: The Need For A Plurality Of Perspectives On Disability, Susan Baglieri, Jan W. Valle, David J. Connor, Deborah J. Gallagher Jul 2011

Disability Studies In Education: The Need For A Plurality Of Perspectives On Disability, Susan Baglieri, Jan W. Valle, David J. Connor, Deborah J. Gallagher

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This article asserts that the field of special education, historically founded on conceptions of disability originating within scientific, psychological, and medical frame works, will benefit from acknowledging broader understandings of disability. Although well intended, traditional understandings of disability in special education have inadvertently inhibited the development of theory,limited research methods, narrowed pedagogical practice, and determined largely segregated policies for educating students with disabilities. Since the passage of P.L. 94-142, along with the growth of the Disability Rights Movements, meanings of disability have expanded and evolved, no longer constrained to the deficit-based medical model. For many individuals, disability is primarily best …


Understanding Self-Determination And Families Of Young Children With Disabilities In Home Environments, Mary Jane Brotherson, Christine C. Cook, Elizabeth Erwin, Cindy J. Weigel Dec 2008

Understanding Self-Determination And Families Of Young Children With Disabilities In Home Environments, Mary Jane Brotherson, Christine C. Cook, Elizabeth Erwin, Cindy J. Weigel

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This article is about emergent self-determination for young children with disabilities in their home environments. The purpose of this study was to better understand family and home characteristics and how they influence the ways in which families can support the development of self-determination for their children with disabilities. Thirty families of young children with disabilities were interviewed, and their homes were systematically observed. Using a grounded theory design, an emergent model was developed that examined family and home context and the influence of context on the strategies that families used to support self-determination. Future research and practice implications of this …