From Detractive to Democratic: The Duty of Teacher Education to Disrupt Structural Ableism and Reimagine Disability

Abstract

Background: There is scant research on whether or how special education teacher preparation plays a role in shaping, maintaining, or perpetuating ableism and oppression for disabled students, which the author proposes is “structural ableism.” This conceptual article argues that special education teacher preparation programs’ systems and structures should be examined for ways they inadvertently contribute to ableist perceptions of disability to ensure that such structures do not influence the lenses and practice of the teachers they produce. Purpose: This article proposes that special education teacher preparation programs’ systems and structures should be examined for ways they inadvertently contribute to oppressive educational conditions and negative or ableist perceptions of disability to ensure that such structures do not influence the lenses and practice of the teachers they produce. In this article, the author theorizes “structural ableism,” which she defines as “a complex system of hierarchical and discriminatory processes, policies, and institutions that privilege and prefer able-bodied people, fail to represent or meaningfully include disabled persons’ voices, and are grounded in a network of ableist beliefs and practices that maintain and reproduce unequal outcomes for disabled people and benefit able-bodied people.” Conclusion: The author concludes that teacher preparation has a duty to embrace inclusivity through the lens of democratic education to help “shift disability toward a more inclusive ideology, and identify and dismantle oppressive structures that perpetuate ableism in teacher candidates.”

Ableist Language in Schools Guide for Practitioners

“…Many common terms still used to describe disabled students and their school experiences reflect the ableist origins of special education, and we briefly review several of them in this section. Keefe (2022) describes how the prefix "special", in terms like special education and special needs, is a euphemism that, while likely well-intentioned, positions disabilities as an abnormal state that invokes embarrassment, discomfort, or pity, which require educators to avoid centering or directly addressing them. The adverse consequences of such euphemisms are reflected in the fact that these terms (or short form versions of these terms such as "SpEd"), can be wielded as slurs between students, and are associated with more negative perceptions of disabled people (Gernsbacher et al, 2016).…”