Intersectionality In Education

Even though the inclusion of intersectionality within Disability Studies allowed for an expansion on the focus on a variety of different issues affecting individuals with disabilities, I wish to focus my paper within the context of K-12 education and the marginalization of disabled students of color. As was explained in the article, “Disability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the Intersections of Race and Dis/ability,” written by Subini Ancy Annamma, David J. Connor, and Beth A. Ferri, although legislation, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEIA), allowed for students with disabilities to received specialized services due to their disabled identity, it also simultaneously promoted an idea of who qualifies …show more content…
This idea can be seen in the article when Annamma et al. explain that, “…students of color tend to be educated in settings segregated from the general population more often than their White peers with the same dis/ability label who were more likely to receive support in the general education classroom and learn alongside their general education peers…” (15). Therefore, it is because of this racialized issue of disabled students of color and their increasingly segregated, marginalized, and “othered” position in relation to the rest of the “normal” student body that I wish to propose an internvention that would help lessen, if not eliminate, the extent to which educational outcomes and experiences are dramatically and disproportionately affected due to the intersections of race and …show more content…
Instead of merely focusing on what disabled students, particularly disabled students of color, cannot do and the limits to their “abilities,” I argue that teachers, faculty, and staff should embrace their unique abilities and strengths. By doing do, the focus from a correctional and regulating curriculum will shift to one that embraces education and self-empowerment. In addition to this, I argue that disabled students, regardless of their race, should be taught alongside their “general education” peers, that way the unfortunate stigmatization of disability can begin to transform into a collective understanding that both accepts and embraces “differences.” Although my training-based intervention does not directly address the racialized manner in which disabled students of color are disproportionately placed in special education due to the racial biases of the school jurisdiction, my intervention can at least begin to open the doorway onto a context that allows for a holistic understanding from both the students and teachers (including faculty and staff) of disability and the need for disability justice, especially within the context of