Reconceptualizing Assistance for Young Children of Color With Disabilities in an Inclusion Classroom

Abstract

In this article, we draw on DisCrit to critically analyze how a group of early childhood educators approached assistance with young children of color with disabilities in a Head Start inclusion classroom. Using examples from data collected over one school year, we demonstrate how child-centered assistance advances justice for young children of color with disabilities who are often subjected to a surveillance culture in schools. We critique assistance that aligns with the medical model of disability and aims to change young children of color with disabilities to conform to ableist, racist expectations of schooling. We offer examples of assistance practices that contrastingly aim to support young children of color with disabilities to pursue their own interests and purposes. Through these counterstories, we reconceptualize assistance as a practice that can support young children of color with disabilities to be more fully themselves.

A Review on Early Intervention Systems

“…Park and colleagues turn away from the medical model of understanding disability and not only use a social model of disability for their framework, but they use a “DisCrit” theory to analyse their data, recognizing that race is a critical factor in understanding disability experiences [ 13 •]. DisCrit studies combine critical disability studies and critical race theory and recognize the interconnection between ableism, racism, and other forms of discrimination, calling for a shift to affirming recognition of the place of disabled children in society, particularly disabled children of colour [ 14 , 15 ].…”

“…Using video footage of one early childhood classroom, Park and colleagues identified the “humanizing” approaches to teaching disabled students. In this classroom, educators reimagined assistance for children through giving time and space and assisting and centring the child [ 13 •]. The educators allowed students to transition from activities on their own time and in the manner they desired, which promoted independence and individuality and also advanced justice for the children of colour by allowing them to be themselves, rather than who the adults wanted them to be.…”

“…The authors of this study also applied DisCrit to their analysis in early educational settings. They noted that a culture of surveillance is often experienced in special educational settings by children of colour with disabilities in which they are asked to behave in certain ways and monitored for adherence to those requests [ 13 •]. The educators in this classroom ultimately emphasized shifts from the typical special education classroom: from surveillance to responsiveness and from a deficit view of students to a humanizing one.…”

“…Every child’s experience must include access to diverse learning opportunities, meaningful interactions with peers, and development of a sense of belonging; and yet for many, it also needs to include individualized supports. To ensure optimal experiences for all children, administrators should be aware of both historical and contemporary inequities in education and support the ongoing reflection on and promotion of equitable practices that include and accommodate diverse experiences of children and their families in early childhood environments [ 13 •, 16 •]. Some of the articles included in this review reflect a shift to encompassing the influence of socially stratifying factors and marginalization as part of the experiences addressed by trauma-informed educational practices.…”

Tensions as opportunities for transformation: Applying DisCrit Resistance to early childhood teacher education programs

“…Traditional developmentalism perpetuates narrow views of desirable development and behavior that align with the white, middle-class perspectives of the Global North (Gupta, 2020; Saavedra and Pérez, 2018). When teachers draw on constrictive views of professional identity and knowledge regarding children’s behavior and development, they can legitimate surveilling, intervening on, and punishing multiply marginalized children of color in the name of moving children towards white, nondisabled ways of being and behaving (Migliarini and Annamma, 2019; Park et al, 2021). Therefore, teacher educators need to promote the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that allow future teachers to view children’s behaviors not only as valid communication, but also as purposeful resistance that signals the ways they are being marginalized and shows educators what children need instead (Migliarini and Annamma, 2019).…”