Culturally Sustaining Inclusive Systemic Design to Address Overrepresentation of Students of Color with and without Dis/abilities in Exclusionary Practices

ABSTRACT

Overrepresentation of students of color with and without dis/abilities in exclusionary practices (e.g., suspension, expulsion) is a historically accumulating educational debt that stems from the intersection of racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression. As a historical, sociopolitical, and geospatial situated issue, addressing racial disproportionality in exclusionary practices requires developing localized solutions in response to local racial politics and the school community’s needs and goals. In an effort to develop localized solutions to racial disproportionality in exclusionary practices, the Learning Lab was implemented at an urban Middle School in the 2021–2022 academic year. The Learning Lab is a community-driven systemic design process in which local stakeholders engage in systemic analysis of the existing system and collaboratively design a new schoolwide support system. This study investigated how school stakeholders designed a culturally sustaining and inclusive support system to address the overrepresentation of students of color with and without dis/abilities in exclusionary practices.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. We utilize the term “students of color” to refer to students from racially minoritized communities. We acknowledge that this term may obfuscate the unique racialized histories, experiences, and political struggles of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islanders communities, and other disenfranchised groups (Liou & Boveda, 2022). In addition, this signifier may obscure the intersectional complexity of racial subjugation and entail material and psychological harms that youth from nondominant groups experience in U.S. schools and broader society. However, we purposefully use the all-encompassing term “student of color” to foreground the racialized experiences of students from historically marginalized groups (e.g., pathologization and criminalization) (Dumas & Nelson, 2016) and political solidarity for collective actions toward dismantling oppressive structures upholding White privilege and supremacy.

2. We intentionally use the term “dis/ability” to underscore that the notion of disability is a fluid construction at the confluence of sociocultural, sociopolitical, and economic forces, extending beyond merely medical and biological conditions (Davis, 1995).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Wichita State University Research/Creative Projects Award.

Notes on contributors

Dosun Ko

Dosun Ko is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Santa Clara University. His research involves the sociocultural and political processes of disability identification, community-driven systemic design, and equity-oriented inclusive teacher education.

Yehyang Lee

Yehyang Lee is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. She previously worked as a special education teacher. Her research agenda includes addressing equity and social justice issues in special education.