Week 7: Questions

If, as Crow states, many teachers aren’t empowered to determine whether a portrayal of disability is “good or bad,” what types of professional development and support do we need to support teachers to get to a point where they do have this lens of analysis?

How can the concept of universal design and the disability rights movement be integrated into existing STEM and social studies frameworks?

How can we shift the ideologies in schools from an incrementalist framework to a reconceptualist framework? What laws and legal frameworks need to shift to accommodate and support this change?

How can we move away from a special education model grounded in labels as a necessary precursor to getting students the services they need? How can we use a more fluid conceptualization of ability and disability to rethink this system in a meaningful way?

References

Connor, D. and Bejoian, Cripping School Curricula: 20 Ways to Re-Teach Disability (pp. 3-10)

Baglieri, S. et al. (2011). Disability Studies in Education: The Need for a Plurality of Perspectives on Disability (pp. 2-11)

Crow, L. (1990) Disability in Children’s Literature (pp. 1-4)