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Insiders’ Perspectives. Susan L. Gabel, PhD. Tenets of Disability Studies in Education. Contextualize disability within political and social spheres. Privilege the interests, agendas, and voices of people with disabilities.
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Insiders’ Perspectives Susan L. Gabel, PhD
Tenets of Disability Studies in Education • Contextualize disability within political and social spheres. • Privilege the interests, agendas, and voices of people with disabilities. • Promote social justice, equitable and inclusive educational opportunities, and full and meaningful access to all aspects of society for people with disabilities. • Assume competence and reject deficit models of disability.
Guidelines for Research in DSE • Scholars with disabilities and non-disabled scholars work together. • Recognize and privilege the knowledge derived from the lived experience of people with disabilities. • Whenever possible adhere to an emancipatory stance (for example, working with people with disabilities as informed participants or co-researchers, not ‘subjects’).
Welcome intradisciplinary approaches to understanding the phenomenon of disability, e.g. multiple research approaches. • Challenges research methodology that objectifies, marginalizes, and oppresses people with disabilities.
● Cultivates interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the phenomenon of disability, e.g. interfacing with multicultural education, the humanities, social sciences, philosophy, cultural studies, etc.
Lessons Learned • Disability identity is fluid. • Avoid literal translation when working cross-culturally (e.g., learning disabled). • Use participants’ native language when possible. • Question basic concepts used by participants (e.g., normal). • Conduct more than one analysis (e.g., thematic, theoretical).
Be clear about unit of analysis (e.g., individual, group, micro-, macro-, etc.). • A thorough literature review is essential prior to data gathering/analysis. • Context is essential. • Social • Political • Historic • Economic
Questions to Ask • How can I avoid reproducing medical model discourses? • How can I understand and articulate the complexities of my participants’ lives in context? • What are the things in the data that bump up against each other? Where are the dissonances?