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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Disability At The Intersections, Dara Shifrer, Angela Frederick
Disability At The Intersections, Dara Shifrer, Angela Frederick
Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations
Complete and accurate understandings of stratification depend on more regular consideration of disability. To build sociologists’ recognition of disability as a socially constructed axis of stratification, we first demonstrate the construction of the disability category through classic legitimating processes: moral attributions, biological attributions, separation, and dichotomization. Expanding understandings of basic processes of stratification, we then document the centrality of disability in the social construction of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and age. Finally, we show various ways disability functions as an axis of stratification in intersection with other key axes of stratification.
Clarifying The Social Roots Of The Disproportionate Classification Of Racial Minorities And Males With Learning Disabilities, Dara Shifrer
Clarifying The Social Roots Of The Disproportionate Classification Of Racial Minorities And Males With Learning Disabilities, Dara Shifrer
Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations
The disproportionate placement of racial minorities and males into special education for learning disabilities (LDs) raises concerns that classifications occur inaccurately or inequitably. This study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 to investigate the social etiology of LD classifications that persist into adolescence. Findings suggest the overclassification of racial minorities is largely consistent with (clinically relevant) differences in educational performance. Classifications may occur inconsistently or subjectively, with clinically irrelevant qualities like school characteristics and linguistic-immigration history independently predictive of disability classification. Finally, classifications may be partially biased, with male overclassification largely unexplained by this study’s measures and …