Ayres, K., Ocasio-Stoutenberg, L., Connor, D. J., & Fuller, M. C. (2024). The journey of disability studies: Contemplating disability critically. In E. A. Harkins Monaco, L. L. Stansberry Brusnahan, M. C. Fuller, & M. Odima, Jr. (Eds). Disability, Intersectionality, and Belonging in Special Educa..., 2024
Critical disability theory (CDT) integrates disability studies and critical race theory scholarsh... more Critical disability theory (CDT) integrates disability studies and critical race theory scholarship to reconceptualize disability beyond the confines of deficits-based definitions and medical model perspectives. This reconceptualization is an important strategy to oppose the invisible and insidious impacts of ableism. Through a lens informed by CDT, disability is viewed as a natural-and even valued-component of human variation. Rather than seeking to overcome or eliminate disability, the eradication of ableism is prioritized as a goal to improve our society. The purpose of this chapter is to define CDT for practitioners by discussing the historical implications of ableism, paternalism, and the maintenance of systems of poverty and isolation. This chapter explores the intersection of disability and other socially constructed, marginalized identities, like race, gender, and sexual orientation. Binary divisions between disabled and nondisabled, between normal and abnormal, and between able to learn and not able to learn will be dismantled. The purpose of this chapter is to equip readers with strategies to leverage CDT to improve their educational practices within the classroom and beyond.
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Books by David J Connor
Book Features:
• Expands the discussion on DisCrit to include issues of language, citizenship, and post-secondary education, and more.
• Presents a robust engagement with DisCrit that reaches across disciplines, geographies, and temporalities.
• Highlights the lived experience of people with disabilities as knowledge generators fighting against the collusive power of racism and ableism.
• Recognizes that disability is complex, multifaceted and not bound by labels for Black people, Indigenous People, and other People of Color in educational experiences and throughout the lifespan
• Further explores the discussion on DisCrit while encouraging disability scholars to substantially integrate racism into their analyses, and for race scholars to do the same with ableism.
Paperback version:
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Keep-Breathing-Tales-Love/dp/B091WFG925/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=david+j.+connor&qid=1618001225&s=books&sr=1-1
Kindle version:
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Keep-Breathing-Tales-Love-ebook/dp/B0921T8C8Q/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=david+j.+connor&qid=1618001455&s=books&sr=1-2
When contemplating what it means to be human, one of the things uniting us all is our experiences with love and loss. Not merely limited to a romantic sense, although admittedly, that is an important part of our world. Rather, we know there are many kinds of love we feel—for family members, friends, Gods, pets, idols, places…the list goes on. We also know everything that can be loved, can also be lost—to time, to chance, to change, to death. When this happens, we may experience great distress, disequilibrium in our lives, even disillusionment. And yet we move forward. We keep breathing. The losses fold into ourselves, becoming a part of who we are. We learn from them. And we keep loving.
This trilogy is an exploration of how people make sense of love and loss in their lives. It is set in New York City, a microcosm of the world, with an astounding range of human diversity found throughout its five boroughs. The characters in these tales reflect that diversity, mirroring our commonalities in their strengths and frailties, desires and fears, hopes and struggles. It is my own hope that the people in these stories can serve as a prism for us all to reflect upon what makes us who we are.
The result of their collaboration is this book in which Berman skillfully narrates episodes across time, describing ways in which children, teachers, educational assistants, parents, and a principal came to know Benny―developing numerous and often creative ways to include him in their classrooms, school, and community. Connor’s commentaries after each chapter link practice to theory, revealing ways in which much of what the school community seems to "do naturally" is, in fact, highly compatible with a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) approach to inclusive education. By illuminating multiple approaches that have worked to include Benny, the authors invite educators and families to envision further possibilities within their own contexts."
Critical Race Theory (CRT) to explore some of today’s most important issues in education. Scholars
examine the achievement/opportunity gaps from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as
the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and the school-to-prison pipeline. Chapters
also address school reform and the impact on students based on race, class, and dis/ability and the
capacity of law and policy to include (and exclude). Readers will discover how some students are included
(and excluded) within schools and society, why some citizens are afforded expanded (or limited)
opportunities in life, and who moves up in the world and who is trapped at the “bottom of the well.”
Urban Narratives foregrounds previously silenced voices of young people of color who are labeled disabled. Overrepresented in special education classes, yet underrepresented in educational research, these students—the largest group within segregated special education classes—share their perceptions of the world and their place within it. Eight 'portraits in progress' consisting of their own words and framed by their poetry and drawings, reveal compelling insights about life inside and out of the American urban education system. The book uses an intersectional analysis to examine how power circulates in society throughout and among historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal domains, impacting social, academic, and economic opportunities for individuals, and expanding or circumscribing their worlds.
Reading Resistance confronts longstanding exclusionary practices in U.S. public schooling. Beth A. Ferri and David J. Connor trace the interconnected histories of race and disability in the public imagination through their nuanced analysis of editorial pages and other public discourses, including political cartoons and eugenics posters. By uncovering how the concept of disability was used to resegregate students of color after the historic Brown decision, the authors argue that special education has played a role in undermining school desegregation. In its critical, interdisciplinary focus on the interlocking politics of race and disability, Reading Resistance offers contributions to educational research, theory, and policy.
Papers by David J Connor
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128186305120123?via%3Dihub
Book Features:
• Expands the discussion on DisCrit to include issues of language, citizenship, and post-secondary education, and more.
• Presents a robust engagement with DisCrit that reaches across disciplines, geographies, and temporalities.
• Highlights the lived experience of people with disabilities as knowledge generators fighting against the collusive power of racism and ableism.
• Recognizes that disability is complex, multifaceted and not bound by labels for Black people, Indigenous People, and other People of Color in educational experiences and throughout the lifespan
• Further explores the discussion on DisCrit while encouraging disability scholars to substantially integrate racism into their analyses, and for race scholars to do the same with ableism.
Paperback version:
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Keep-Breathing-Tales-Love/dp/B091WFG925/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=david+j.+connor&qid=1618001225&s=books&sr=1-1
Kindle version:
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Keep-Breathing-Tales-Love-ebook/dp/B0921T8C8Q/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=david+j.+connor&qid=1618001455&s=books&sr=1-2
When contemplating what it means to be human, one of the things uniting us all is our experiences with love and loss. Not merely limited to a romantic sense, although admittedly, that is an important part of our world. Rather, we know there are many kinds of love we feel—for family members, friends, Gods, pets, idols, places…the list goes on. We also know everything that can be loved, can also be lost—to time, to chance, to change, to death. When this happens, we may experience great distress, disequilibrium in our lives, even disillusionment. And yet we move forward. We keep breathing. The losses fold into ourselves, becoming a part of who we are. We learn from them. And we keep loving.
This trilogy is an exploration of how people make sense of love and loss in their lives. It is set in New York City, a microcosm of the world, with an astounding range of human diversity found throughout its five boroughs. The characters in these tales reflect that diversity, mirroring our commonalities in their strengths and frailties, desires and fears, hopes and struggles. It is my own hope that the people in these stories can serve as a prism for us all to reflect upon what makes us who we are.
The result of their collaboration is this book in which Berman skillfully narrates episodes across time, describing ways in which children, teachers, educational assistants, parents, and a principal came to know Benny―developing numerous and often creative ways to include him in their classrooms, school, and community. Connor’s commentaries after each chapter link practice to theory, revealing ways in which much of what the school community seems to "do naturally" is, in fact, highly compatible with a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) approach to inclusive education. By illuminating multiple approaches that have worked to include Benny, the authors invite educators and families to envision further possibilities within their own contexts."
Critical Race Theory (CRT) to explore some of today’s most important issues in education. Scholars
examine the achievement/opportunity gaps from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as
the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and the school-to-prison pipeline. Chapters
also address school reform and the impact on students based on race, class, and dis/ability and the
capacity of law and policy to include (and exclude). Readers will discover how some students are included
(and excluded) within schools and society, why some citizens are afforded expanded (or limited)
opportunities in life, and who moves up in the world and who is trapped at the “bottom of the well.”
Urban Narratives foregrounds previously silenced voices of young people of color who are labeled disabled. Overrepresented in special education classes, yet underrepresented in educational research, these students—the largest group within segregated special education classes—share their perceptions of the world and their place within it. Eight 'portraits in progress' consisting of their own words and framed by their poetry and drawings, reveal compelling insights about life inside and out of the American urban education system. The book uses an intersectional analysis to examine how power circulates in society throughout and among historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal domains, impacting social, academic, and economic opportunities for individuals, and expanding or circumscribing their worlds.
Reading Resistance confronts longstanding exclusionary practices in U.S. public schooling. Beth A. Ferri and David J. Connor trace the interconnected histories of race and disability in the public imagination through their nuanced analysis of editorial pages and other public discourses, including political cartoons and eugenics posters. By uncovering how the concept of disability was used to resegregate students of color after the historic Brown decision, the authors argue that special education has played a role in undermining school desegregation. In its critical, interdisciplinary focus on the interlocking politics of race and disability, Reading Resistance offers contributions to educational research, theory, and policy.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128186305120123?via%3Dihub
formalized field of study that continues to grow and develop. ln this brief commentary we attempt to capture the scope and broad thematics of DSE scholarship in TCR from foundational articles to more recent works as DSE continues to expand particularly in terms of interdisciplinary and intersectional commitments.
Why? Because she examines and explores what has recently concerned many of us in education, that is, the pandemic’s impact upon the lives of both teachers and students with and without disabilities. We have heard all kinds of stories in social media (Selwyn, 2020), along with formal reports (Barbour, 2021) and journal articles on the crest of an anticipated wave of information (Osofsky et al., 2020). Still, we don’t yet have a cohesive, substantial body of knowledge that makes sense of the pandemic’s ongoing impact on education in the United States and around the world.... [1st Paragraph of Commentary]
significantly impact how inclusive education is envisioned and enacted, with proponents of each model holding fast to what they believe is “best” for students. It is precisely because of disagreements about what constitutes special education—and in particular its relationship toward inclusive education—that we see value in comparing and contrasting medical and social models of disability.
In doing so we build upon previous publications of scholars who have analyzed differences between medical and social perspectives of special education. Moreover, we extend these analyses to focus upon inclusive practices in particular, including the impact of how medical and social models impacts each educators’ disposition about how inclusion is conceptualized, enacted, and assessed. For the purpose of this analysis we focus upon the following areas: (1) the concept of disability and “appropriate” placement; (2) the purpose of schools; (3) the nature of teaching learning; (4) a teacher’s role; (5) the notion of student success and failure; and, (6) perceptions of social justice and disability. Within each area we offer a medical and social model perspective before discussing implications for inclusive education. Finally, we describe how, when taken together, these interconnected and sometimes overlapping areas convey how medicalized or sociocultural models of inclusive education can vary dramatically, depending upon a teacher’s general ideological disposition toward disability or difference. [initial draft of published paper]