Critical Disability Studies (cds) provokes the field of early childhood ‘inclusion’ to reflect on its own complex history in order to identify how ableism has played a central role in the field’s development. However, the fields of early childhood ‘inclusive’ education and cds remain largely distinct. This paper explores the ongoing separation between these fields in the context of the United States. I begin by providing a brief overview of the history of cds and early childhood ‘inclusive’ education as distinct fields. Then, I discuss the divide between these two fields, analyzing their contemporary states, and describing the factors that facilitate the distance between them.
Inclusive education is increasingly prioritized in legislation and policy across the globe. Historically, the concept of inclusion within educational contexts refers primarily to the placement of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. More recent descriptions of inclusive education focus on ensuring that all children can access and participate in physical, social, and academic aspects of the classroom. However, a growing body of research suggests that students continue to experience exclusion even within educational contexts that express a commitment to inclusion. In France, a growing number of private, independent schools seek to create the inclusive environments that, despite the ministry of education’s initiatives focused on inclusion, the public school system does not yet provide. One such school engaged in a participatory action research project to create an inclusive classroom that responded to the evolving needs and interests of the community, resulting in a sense of belonging for all members. As all classroom community members (students, families, and teachers) participated in the project of creating an inclusive classroom, the elements of participatory action research allowed inclusion to become a flexible, ongoing, and reflexive practice of identifying and responding to contextually specific needs of classroom members. Approaching inclusion as a participatory action research project in the classroom offers a promising approach to moving beyond interpretations of inclusion that fail to actively address pervasive inequalities and their impact on classroom experiences.
This paper describes a small pedagogical project aimed at engaging undergraduate students in critically reflecting on how the Other is constructed within Disney's Beauty and the Beast through a disability studies lens. In order to prepare for this project, I created a détournement, or counter-text, using clips from Beauty and the Beast alongside President George Bush's statement prior to signing the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This paper describes the theoretical framework and major components of the détournement, my analysis of undergraduate student written responses to viewing the détournement, and the implications of utilizing media texts alongside counter-texts in order to introduce the tenets of disability studies in education to pre-service teachers.
PurposeThe winner of three Golden Globe Awards, and the first-ever animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, Disney's 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast was "arguably the most successful feature Disney has ever produced" (Berberi & Berberi, 2013, p. 197). The film presents a version of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 1756 fairytale, which also served as the script for Jean Cocteau's film, La Belle et la Bête, in 1945. Disney's interpretation of the tale, and the decisions made to include or exclude certain key elements of the original plot, provide insight into how ideas about humanity have changed over time. Specifically, a socio-historical analysis of how the Beast is portrayed may shed light on how the Other is constructed and positioned in a specific cultural moment. This type of analysis is in line with Giroux's (2000) call for a "new analyses of Disney that connect(s) rather than separate(s) the various social and cultural formation in which the company actively engages" (p. 110). From a disability studies
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