Gillian Parekh - Böcker

This edited book makes an epistemic claim that disability studies’ approaches to curriculum are doing more than merely critiquing how privileged knowledge excludes disability from curriculum theory and praxis. The scholars, in this volume, argue, instead, that Disability Studies embodies an epistemic space that not only demonstrates its difference from the normative curriculum, it exceeds curriculum’s confining boundaries. Thus, they argue for a “curriculum about curriculum”—one that critically investigates the epistemological, ontological, and pedagogical claims of the normative curriculum from the critical standpoint of disability.Conceptualizing curriculum as cultural politics, each chapter offers a theorization of disability via a critical intersectional lens that addresses the following questions: What are the epistemological barriers/possibilities encountered when disability is brought into the intellectual ambit of curriculum theory? What would curriculum theory look like if disabled people re-imagined the curriculum? What is the link between curriculum and conceptions of specialized programming for students identified as disabled? And most critically, how do approaches to schooling and conceptions of ability within curriculum studies enact forms of racism, sexism, and heteronormativity as well as are complicit in the construction and removal of the disabled body from mainstream education? This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Curriculum Inquiry.

This edited book makes an epistemic claim that disability studies’ approaches to curriculum are doing more than merely critiquing how privileged knowledge excludes disability from curriculum theory and praxis. The scholars, in this volume, argue, instead, that Disability Studies embodies an epistemic space that not only demonstrates its difference from the normative curriculum, it exceeds curriculum’s confining boundaries. Thus, they argue for a “curriculum about curriculum”—one that critically investigates the epistemological, ontological, and pedagogical claims of the normative curriculum from the critical standpoint of disability.Conceptualizing curriculum as cultural politics, each chapter offers a theorization of disability via a critical intersectional lens that addresses the following questions: What are the epistemological barriers/possibilities encountered when disability is brought into the intellectual ambit of curriculum theory? What would curriculum theory look like if disabled people re-imagined the curriculum? What is the link between curriculum and conceptions of specialized programming for students identified as disabled? And most critically, how do approaches to schooling and conceptions of ability within curriculum studies enact forms of racism, sexism, and heteronormativity as well as are complicit in the construction and removal of the disabled body from mainstream education? This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Curriculum Inquiry.

How we organize children by ability in schools is often rooted in ableism.Ability is so central to schooling—where we explicitly and continuously shape, assess, measure, and report on students’ abilities—that ability-based decisions often appear logical and natural. However, how schools respond to ability results in very real, lifelong social and economic consequences. Special education and academic streaming (or tracking) are two of the most prominent ability-based strategies public schools use to organize student learning. Both have had a long and complicated relationship with gender, race, and class.In this down-to-earth guide, Dr. Gillian Parekh unpacks the realities of how ability and disability play out within schooling, including insights from students, teachers, and administrators about the barriers faced by students on the basis of ability. From the challenges with ability testing to gifted programs to the disability rights movement, Parekh shows how ableism is inextricably linked to other forms of bias. Her book is a powerful tool for educators committed to justice-seeking practices in schools.

Critical Perspectives on Education Policy and Schools, Families, and Communities offers scholars, students, and practitioners important new knowledge about how current policies impact families, schools, and community partnerships. The book’s authors share a critical orientation towards policy and policy research and invite readers to think differently about what policy is, who policymakers are, and what policy can achieve. Their chapters discuss findings from research grounded in diverse theories, including institutional ethnography, critical disability theory, and critical race theory. The authors encourage scholars of family, school, and community partnerships to ask who benefits from policies (and who loses) and how proposed reforms maintain or disrupt existing relations of power.The chapters present original research on a broad range of policies at the local, state/provincial, and national levels in Canada and the USA. Some authors look closely at the enactment of specific district policies, including a school district’s language translation policy and a policy to create local advisory bodies as part of decentralization efforts. Other chapters reveal the often unacknowledged yet necessary work parents do to meet their children’s needs and enable schools to operate. A few chapters focus on challenges and paradoxes of including families and community members in policymaking processes, including a case where parents demonstrated a preference for a policy that research demonstrates can be detrimental to their children’s future education opportunities. Another set of chapters emphasizes the centrality of policy texts and how language influences the educational experiences and engagement of students and their families. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of implications of the research for educators, families, and other community partners.