DisCrit: Disability Critical Race Theory

Linking powerful first-person narratives with structural analysis, The Pedagogy of Pathologization explores the construction of criminal identities in schools via the intersections of race, disability, and gender. Focusing uniquely on the pathologization of female students of color, whose voices are frequently engulfed by labels of deviance and disability, a distinct and underrepresented experience of the school-to-prison pipeline is detailed through original qualitative methods rooted in authentic narratives. The book’s DisCrit framework, grounded in interdisciplinary research, draws on scholarship from critical race theory, disability studies, education, women’s and girl’s studies, legal studies, and more.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Pedagogy-of-Pathologization-Dis-abled-girls-of-color-in-the-school-prison/Annamma/p/book/9781138696907

This article provides an innovative critical qualitative method framed in Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) that
mapped the experiences of those at the margins through a sociospatial dialectic. I first applied a sociospatial dialectic to the
school–prison nexus. Next, I introduced Education Journey Mapping, a critical qualitative method that centered students
of color with dis/abilities in the research process, as one way to rupture notions of normalcy in research. Finally, I analyzed
a set of Education Journey Maps that incarcerated girls of color with dis/abilities created to highlight the multidimensional
value of these counter-cartographies in understanding consequential geographies.

Context: Girls of Color are overrepresented in school disciplinary actions based on subjectively judged, minor infractions. Studies have consistently shown that this exclusionary discipline has long-lasting impact on Girls of Color and their educational outcomes, including increased risk for pushout and involvement in the criminal legal system. Focus of Study: We sought to uncover the processes that animate the statistics of overrepresentation of Girls of Color in disciplinary actions. Said differently, we sought to understand where, how, and why Girls of Color were being disciplined in schools. Using a Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) lens and centering the voices of Girls' of Color, this empirical study was guided by the question, What mechanisms propel and dispel disciplinary inequities for Girls of Color? Research Design: The qualitative research took place in a suburban school district in the Midwestern United States marked by increasing racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity. This was part of a larger two-year study that Conclusions/Recommendations: Our analysis revealed the ways in which discipline disparities were animated by inequitable academic and behavioral responses of teachers to classroom interactions, which we name debilitating practices. Further, Girls of Color embodied repositioning as ways of maintaining their integrity and individuality when experiencing academic and behavioral injustices. We conclude with major implications for school personnel: (a) academically, educators must reflect on how ability is distributed and withheld in the classroom along racialized and gendered lines, and (b) behaviorally, positive behavior supports should be imagined and implemented through a race and gender conscious lens. Though we focus on classroom interactions, we also understand that public schools, schools of education, and society all have a role to play in dismantling the school-prison nexus. However, classroom interactions continue to be identified as the source of disciplinary disparities in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Consequently, teachers have an opportunity to change their classroom practices to academically and behaviorally support Girls of Color.