Storying disability’s potential

Abstract

In this paper, we weave in and out of theory and narrative in order to consider the potential of disability and its relationship to knowledge construction. We consider theories to be stories that one can tell about the world. And these theories are enlivened by other stories that we tell about ourselves and the world around us. As disability researchers, we explore the ways in which disability becomes known in the world and we do so through our own tales and theoretical narratives of knowing disability. In telling stories, then, we break down artificial boundaries between theory and narrative. And in theorising our storiesand storying our theorieswe seek to explore the potential of disability to unsettle and challenge exclusionary curriculum. This textual assemblage traverses diverse themes including diagnosis, school programming, welfare, transportation, social interaction and access. ARTICLE HISTORY

Precarious inclusion: A collaborative account of casualisation and teaching leadership challenges at the post-pandemic university

“…For this paper we came together in the lingering shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria Australia, weaving our experiences and narratives as divergently minoritised scholars to emphasise how through research and teaching we battled the headwinds of precarious inclusion to support values of inclusion and equity in higher education. Our contribution takes institutional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic as a point of departure to consider changing precarity through casualisation, feminisation, race, disability, pastoral care, accessibility and collaborative leadership, building on instructive collaborative reflections between scholars in the production of knowledge about the significance of learning from minoritised positions (Anderson et al, 2019;Boveda and Bhattacharya, 2019;Whitburn and Goodley, 2022;Anderson and Henry, 2020). In framing this work dialogically and through Freirean ideals of conscientização, our collective discussions politicise personal experiences of marginalisation in the teaching and researching of inclusion in education for preservice teachers, or more pointedly, in demonstrating the responsibility of all to orientate towards context-dependent inclusive practices.…”

“…We draw on White et al's (2021) argument that despite the field of teacher education undergoing seismic shifts, "the best ways to prepare 'quality' teachers remain central in global conversations about 'quality education' (p. 566) and therefore the onus of responsibility and attention focus now rests on those who prepare teachers: teacher educators and teacher education programmes" (White et al, 2021). To this end, situated in the field of teacher training in a large Australian higher education provider, and offering the shared experiences of two minoritised academics, this contribution attempts to broaden inclusive education scholarship both epistemologically, as it has recurrently been, and ontologically, as we acknowledge it is duly becoming (Naraian, 2021;Whitburn and Goodley, 2022). Watt and Richardson (2020) indicate the ongoing stress experienced by academics globally as they, 'increasingly contend with competing demands and performance pressures that reduce work engagement and wellbeing and may undermine motivations or obstruct their achievement' (p. 2).…”

“…, 2021). To this end, situated in the field of teacher training in a large Australian higher education provider, and offering the shared experiences of two minoritised academics, this contribution attempts to broaden inclusive education scholarship both epistemologically, as it has recurrently been, and ontologically, as we acknowledge it is duly becoming (Naraian, 2021; Whitburn and Goodley, 2022).…”

“…Both are keenly aware of 'our less than ideal bodies in the academic space' (Anderson et al, 2019, p. 2) and our subsequent divergence from dominant norms. For example, we are both cognisant of how dominant epistemologies position disability as pejorative (Whitburn and Goodley, 2022). Furthermore, Reshmi's current doctoral research focusing on inclusion on ethnic migrant women in academia draws on the conundrum of colour to describe the headwinds battering this particular minoritised group.…”

Translating reports: School psychologists, knowledge-making and pedagogy

“…Instead, the inquiry draws on Gough’s (2010) experimental narrative to think and write differently about how local acts of translation variably transform the meaning, value and effect of psychoeducational reports. While this generates a particular perspective or reality, the development of stories grounded in local practice are necessary for evidencing reports as matters of practice (Rhodes & Lancaster, 2019) and how we may progress school psychology in ways that are useful locally (Berliner, 1992; Whitburn & Goodley, 2019).…”