DisCrit solidarity as curriculum studies and transformative praxis

Abstract

Classroom and behaviour management are often touted as ways to build relationships in the classroom. Yet conceptions of classroom and behaviour management often focus on controlling or eradicating student behaviour; these carceral logics limit the ways educators can build classroom relationships focused on love and respect. Moreover, classroom and behaviour management are often rooted in punitive, top–down approaches wherein practices are dictated to teachers and classroom contexts and the students within are ignored. To disrupt these carceral and technocratic logics imbued within classroom and behaviour management, we argue that integrating disability studies exceeds constraining and quarantining boundaries of curriculum, shifting to meta-curriculum. Using Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), we explicitly conceptualize relationships built in the classroom as a necessary part of critical curriculum studies. We then apply Disability Justice principles to curriculum studies to produce DisCrit Solidarity. Finally, we explore the four convictions of DisCrit Solidarity which can reorganize pedagogic spaces for liberation. This intersectional approach to relationships in the classroom rejects managing behaviours, requires purposeful articulation and highlights resistance by educators and students, resulting in transformative praxis.

Keywords:

• Critical theory
• curriculum studies
• socio-political conditions
• disability studies

Acknowledgements

We want to begin by thanking Mia Mingus who took the time to discuss these ideas with us as they were developing. Mia’s work around Disability Justice is foundational but also her willing to engage with us was most appreciated. She pushed us to make clearer connections between our ideas and our practices, towards a transformative praxis. We would also like to take the time to thank each of the readers who has offered support in the development of this article. Thank you to JaeRan Kim and Ruth Lopez. Your expertise and feedback strengthened this article. Additionally, thank you to the editors, guest editors, and reviewers of CI. We appreciate the time each of you committed to grow the concepts presented in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We note that the classroom relationships we are discussing are not the sole responsibility of Curriculum Studies to address. Many education sub-fields (e.g. Educational Leadership, Teacher Education, Special Education) would benefit from a substantive conversation of relationships in the classroom. Instead, we argue that Curriculum Studies has an opportunity to center relationships and therefore theorize in a new epistemic space.

2 We use multiply-marginalized to consistently name the intersecting patterns of oppression (e.g., racism, ableism, sexism). This is not to erase differences, but to give us a way to consistently center the multiple oppressions people of color face. When we use multiply-marginalized students of color, it focuses on race and dis/ability while acknowledging the other marginalized identities students of colour are labelled with and/or claim.

3 Both Aiyana Stanley-Jones (7) and Tamir Rice (12) were Black children shot by police. Both deaths were highly publicized and caused public outrage, yet neither officer was jailed for the murders of these children. For more information, see 21 Times Cops Weren’t Held Accountable For The Death Of Black Victims.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Subini Ancy Annamma

Subini Ancy Annamma, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Stanford University. Her research critically examines the mutually constitutive nature of racism and ableism, how they interlock with other marginalizing oppressions, and how these intersections impact education in urban schools and youth prisons. Dr. Annamma is a past Ford Postdoctoral Fellow, Critical Race Studies in Education Associate Emerging Scholar recipient, and AERA Division G Early Career Awardee. Her recent writing appears in Theory Into Practice, Review of Research in Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education. Dr. Annamma's book, The Pedagogy of Pathologization: Dis/abled Girls of Color in the School-prison Nexus (Routledge, 2018) focuses on the education trajectories of incarcerated disabled girls of color and won the 2018 NWSA Alison Piepmeier Book Prize.

Tamara Handy

Tamara Handy is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Disability Studies, Ragama Medical Faculty, University of Kelania Sri Lanka. Her research interests include Inclusive Education and Education in War-Affected Countries. Her recent writing appears in Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal.