Untangling ideologies of disablement: the perils of the (in)visibility of dis/ability in urban teacher education programs

Abstract

Research on urban teacher education (UTE) programs have studied teacher candidates’ (TCs) perceptions of urban communities and schooling, but have provided limited insights on how ideologies about dis/ability are entangled with race and other markers of difference, shaping TCs’ learning about urban education. In this paper, we present an analysis drawn from a 2-year qualitative study that answers the following questions: What social categories of difference are present in a UTE program’s curriculum? What ideologies related to dis/ability are utilized by TCs to describe urban education? We found that despite the UTE’s program’s strong emphasis on race and social justice, TCs not only drew from asset-based approaches but also from three interrelated ideologies of disablement to discuss students’ behaviors: individualism, medical, and personal tragedy. We provide recommendations for UTE programs and research-based on an intersectional approach to teacher education that foregrounds dis/ability.

Keywords:

• Special education
• inclusive education
• teacher education
• disability studies
• intersectionality
• urban education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Although many teacher preparation programs identify themselves as focused on urban education, the word “urban” is rarely defined (Chou & Tozer, 2008). “Urban” is a construct with broad social, historical, and political significations (Milner, 2012). In this paper, we refute the simplistic and deficit notion that utilizes the term urban education as a proxy for the education of low-income Black and Brown students. Larnell and Bullock (2018) state that “‘urban’ functions as a sort of veil . . . [that] allows the researcher to acknowledge race and class in superficial ways that obscure weightier systemic issues related to the deeply saturated influence of race- and class-based ideologies” (p. 46). Thus, we conceptualize urban education as a part of the process of production of urban space (Lipman, 2011; Soja, 1996) – including urban development – that distributes resources and privilege along intersecting forms of oppression and privilege (Waitoller, 2020). Urban students include not only those from primarily Black and Latinx communities that have been shaped by state-sanctioned segregation and uneven economic investment, but also from White communities who have benefited from the ways urban education space is produced. UTE programs – including the focal program in this analysis – operate under this context.

Additional information

Funding

We aknowledge the financial support from College of Education at UIC. We also aknowledge and are thankful for the work of our coallegues Gregory Larnell and Marisha Humprhies who were part of the research team.

Notes on contributors

Federico R. Waitoller

Federico Waitoller is an associate professor at the department of special education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on urban inclusive education. In particular, his work examines the experiences of students with disabilities with market-driven educational reforms and teacher learning and pedagogies for inclusive education. His latest book is Excluded by Choice: Urban Students with Disabilities in the Education Marketplace, by teachers college press.

Rebecca Woodard

Rebecca Woodard is an associate professor at the department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research focuses on equity-oriented writing and literacy pedagogies, and urban teacher education. She is a co-editor of a National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) journal, Language Arts.

Arthi Rao

Arthi Rao is a clinical associate professor in the Curriculum and Instruction department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The majority of her responsibilities consist of developing and strengthening partnerships with K-8 schools, course planning, and teaching/supervising teacher candidates enrolled in the Urban Education program through both course and fieldwork. Her research interests include effective teacher preparation for urban schools and communities, and induction support for beginning teachers.

Veronica Kang

Veronica Kang is a doctoral candidate in the department of special education at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research focuses on understanding the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse students and families in special education and early intervention. Her recent work focused on examining early childhood educators' perspectives and experiences of inclusion in the United States and South Korea.