Disability and the Meaning of Social Justice in Teacher Education Research: A Precarious Guest at the Table?

Abstract

Although disability is assumed to be part of the teacher education social justice landscape, its position in the context of social justice is contested and has not been informed by an analysis of the empirical record. To address this gap, we examined 25 years of research on social justice in teacher education, focusing on how disability is presented in relationship to other social markers of identity. Disability is only modestly visible within this literature; when included, it is typically treated as an isolated marker of identity, absent considerations of intersectionality. Overcoming this marginalization of disability requires new, robust cross-faculty alliances in conceptualizing research on social justice in teacher education; adopting discursive practices that complicate disability in terms of its intersectional, reciprocal relationship with the full range of social markers of identity; and intersectionality-driven instruction connecting multiple identities and the multiple instructional strategies required to transform teacher education for social justice.

A Critical Review of Educator and Disability Research in Mathematics Education: A Decade of Dehumanizing Waves and Humanizing Wakes

“…For teacher educators, beyond dismantling rigid institutional practices of siloing special and general education (Pugach et al, 2020), it is paramount to support prospective and practicing teachers to strategically and practically challenge the dehumanizing waves with humanizing wakes. For example, teacher educators can support teachers to centrally and meaningfully address antiracism and anti-ableism within curriculum parameters and standards, objectives, and instructional/ pedagogical strategies (Matias, 2013;Thorius & Santamaría Graff, 2018).…”

“…Using DisCrit (Annamma et al, 2013) as a reference point for guidance on a thorough examination of the intersections between race and disability, both articles could have gone deeper in their analysis, demonstrating the complex work that is possible when taking the intersections between race and disability seriously. Lack of intersectional analysis is endemic within, for example, the larger field of teacher education research (e.g., Pugach et al, 2020; Waitoller & Artiles, 2013). More concerning is that in mathematics education research, the erasure of dimensions pertaining to unique knowledges of students of color across disability and racial identities results in what Martin et al (2019) call epistemological violence .…”

Intersectional Disruptor: A Special Educator of Color Living and Teaching in the Intersections

“…Presently, teacher preparation programs and teacher education research do not provide substantive inquiries into the ways in which teacher candidates grapple with the multifaceted implications of intersectional oppression (Pugach et al, 2019). When teacher candidates are not challenged to contextualize their students disabled identities within the larger constellation of identities that they hold, they most likely will develop inadequate approaches to addressing their needs (Pugach et al, 2021; Young, 2016). The findings in this study demonstrate how failing to address intersectionality with teacher candidates of color may present a missed opportunity to harness their lived experiences as a means to disrupt dual processes of ableism and racism.…”

Disability at the Intersections: Expanding Critical Disability Reflective Practices

“…As a more concrete example, Sleeter (1986) details how the term learning disability historically served as a product of social construction to justify the exclusion of students of color and students experiencing poverty. These examples illustrate that conceptualizing the culture of disability in schools cannot exist without an intersectional lens (Pugach et al, 2020).…”

“…Yet, relatively few programs incorporate changes that include disability as an aspect of CLD. Even fewer incorporate changes that include intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), which describes the ways in which disability intersects with other linguistic and cultural identity markers (Pugach et al, 2020; but see Robertson et al, 2017 andRobinson, 2018 for exceptions). Such intersections result in the presence of unique lived experiences for those with intersecting identities that require space and thoughtful consideration in special education teacher preparation (Pugach et al, 2020).…”