Inclusive and Anti-Ableist Education

3 units

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to foundational concepts, issues, and strategies of inclusive education and disability studies. Students will begin to develop a critical understanding of ability/disability in educational contexts. They will learn the tools of classroom analysis and instruction necessary to teach learners in inclusive (general education) settings. This course combines theoretical approaches to thinking about disability as a form of diversity with practical teaching approaches and strategies that promote the participation and progress, both socially and academically, of students with different abilities. In particular, the class will discuss how and why some students are identified as having disabilities based on their individual learning, behavioral, communicative, or physical patterns. We will question and analyze the constructs of “normalcy” and “exceptionality” that underpin traditional special education discourses and practices. Students will develop an understanding of special education law and policy and how these legal measures play out in classrooms and schooling institutions, as well as in the context of ongoing education reform agendas. By reading narrative and autobiographical accounts by disabled authors, students will develop an understanding of how particular physical, cognitive, sensory, behavioral, and psychiatric disabilities are experienced within schooling and beyond. Throughout the course, we will discuss and exercise specific pedagogies and practices of inclusive classroom instruction, lesson planning, assessment, and classroom management. By the end of the semester, students will have developed an in-depth understanding of disability as a social, political, cultural, and historicized construct and will be able to use this understanding of disability to think about educational problems and possibilities.