“Cripping” the Curriculum Through Academic Activism: Working Toward Increasing Global Exchanges to Reframe (Dis)Ability and Education

Abstract

This article illustrates a work in progress about why and how a small yet growing network of international scholars have forged alternative frameworks for understanding what is termed “disability.” First, we discuss the definition of disability calling attention to its social contexts, including schools, and the hegemony of special education. Second, we critique the knowledge base of special education as insufficient for understanding the lived complexities of people identified as disabled. Third, we describe Disability Studies in Education (DSE) as an example of academic activism that counters the master narrative of deficiency. Fourth, we illustrate the global exchanges around disability explored through DSE. Fifth, we consider implications for DSE in theory, research, policy, and practice. Finally, given that DSE's academic activism is rooted in social justice, we discuss some of the tensions, paradoxes, and unresolved questions that broaden what constitutes diversity within classrooms.

Acknowledgments

We thank Sue Baglieri, Deborah Gallagher, and Jan Valle for sharing their ideas that have influenced this article.

Notes

1. We acknowledge that some children and youth with “disabilities” prefer to have separate locations, including those who are Deaf (in their own terms, linguistically different) and those identified as having autism (to manage sensory overstimulation). This acknowledgment does not conflict with the belief that all children and youth should have a legitimate choice.

2. We use the term “able-bodied” as a general catch all phrase to represent all forms of non-disability.

3. Labels include behavior disordered (BD), emotionally disturbed (ED), learning disabled (LD), cognitively impaired (CI), having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Speech and Language Disorder (S & L), Autistic Impairment (AI), and so on.

4. Many scholars who identify as working within DSE also self-identify as critical special educators.