Subini Annamma

Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability

In this article, we combine aspects of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Disability Studies (DS) to propose a new theoretical framework that incorporates a dual analysis of race and ability: Dis/ability Critical Race Studies, or DisCrit. We first examine some connections between the interdependent constructions of race and dis/ability in education and society in the United States and why we find it necessary to add another branch to Critical Race Theory and Disability Studies. Next, we outline the tenets of DisCrit, calling attention to its potential value as well as elucidate some tensions, cautions, and current limitations within DisCrit. Finally, we suggest ways in which DisCrit can be used in relation to moving beyond the contemporary impasse of researching race and dis/ability within education and other fields.

Challenging the ideology of normal in schools

In this article, we build on Brantlingers work to critique the binary of normal and abnormal applied in US schools that create inequities in education. Operating from a critical perspective, we draw from Critical Race Theory, Disability Studies in Education, and Cultural/Historical Activity Theory to build a conceptual framework for examining the prevailing ideology of normal found in US schools. We use our conceptual framework to deconstruct the current, westernised, static ideology of normal. Once deconstructed, we explore current iterations of the ideology of normal in schools. Finally, we suggest using the conceptual framework as a tool to reconstruct the ideology of normal as something more dynamic and inclusive.

Conceptualizing color-evasiveness: using dis/ability critical race theory to expand a color-blind racial ideology in education and society

Abstract Color-blind racial ideology has historically been conceptualized as an ideology wherein race is immaterial. Efforts not to ‘see’ race insinuate that recognizing race is problematic; therefore, scholars have identified and critiqued color-blindness ideology. In this paper, we first examine Gotanda’s (1991) identification and critique of color-blind racial ideology, as it was crucial in troubling white supremacy. We then explore literature in both legal studies and education to determine how scholars have built upon Gotanda’s intellectual theoretical foundations. Finally, using a Dis/ability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) framework, we end by expanding to a racial ideology of color-evasiveness in education and society, as we believe that conceptualizing the refusal to recognize race as ‘color-blindness’ limits the ways this ideology can be dismantled.

Disabling Juvenile Justice: Engaging the Stories of Incarcerated Young Women of Color With Disabilities

One of the field’s most enduring problems is the overrepresentation of students of color in special education. A less acknowledged challenge is the overrepresentation of students with disabilities in juvenile incarceration. Quantitative studies have documented the overrepresentation of students with disabilities in juvenile justice. Yet, little is known about the education they receive once they become incarcerated. This qualitative study examined the education of 10 young women of color labeled with emotional disabilities in the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Through in-depth interviews and observations, this study explored the following questions: (a) What processes and practices impact juvenile incarceration education for students with historically marginalized identities (e.g., disability, gender, race, culture)? (b) How is the education of young women of color with disabilities affected by these processes and practices? Findings illustrate how socializing processes and practices aimed at control and compliance constrain education in juvenile justice but also provide an opportunity to do better.

Black Girls and School Discipline: The Complexities of Being Overrepresented and Understudied

Using Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Feminism as guiding conceptual frameworks, this mixed-methods empirical study examines Black girls’ exclusionary discipline outcomes. First, we examined disciplinary data from a large urban school district to assess racial group differences in office referral reasons and disparities for Black girls in out-of-school suspensions, law enforcement referrals, and expulsions. Next, we used a multivariate analysis to determine whether these patterns held after accounting for other identity markers. Finally, we used Critical Discourse Analysis to consider whether office referrals for Black girls were for subjective or objective behaviors and whether they aligned with dominant narratives.

Disrupting the carceral state through education journey mapping

Abstract The School-to-Prison Pipeline is an alarming trend of funneling children of color out of schools and into incarceration. Yet the focus on the Pipeline neglects the ways society is imbued with a commitment to criminalizing unwanted bodies. In this empirical article I foreground a spatial analysis, making connections to the socio-spatial dialectic, exploring the nature of the Pipeline within a carceral state, and establishing who is vulnerable to state violence. Next I frame the work through Disability Critical Race Theory and the methodological tool of Education Journey Mapping, investigating both the social and spatial processes through the dimensions of mapping. Finally I document findings, making visible the socio-spatial education trajectories of incarcerated young women of color. The purpose of this article then, is to explore the social and spatial mechanisms that funneled girls of color with disabilities into the carceral state, and ways the girls resisted the state violence.

Mapping Consequential Geographies in the Carceral State: Education Journey Mapping as a Qualitative Method With Girls of Color With Dis/abilities:

This article provides an innovative critical qualitative method framed in Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) that mapped the experiences of those at the margins through a sociospatial dialectic. I first applied a sociospatial dialectic to the school–prison nexus. Next, I introduced Education Journey Mapping, a critical qualitative method that centered students of color with dis/abilities in the research process, as one way to rupture notions of normalcy in research. Finally, I analyzed a set of Education Journey Maps that incarcerated girls of color with dis/abilities created to highlight the multidimensional value of these counter-cartographies in understanding consequential geographies.

Gazing into the Mirror: Reflections of Racial Identity Transformation in Transnational and Transracial Adoptees

Abstract In order to understand the social construction of racial identity in adoptees, this paper utilizes the analysis of counter-narratives from Critical Race Theory to examine competing messages sent to adoptees by the adoptive family and society at large. By analyzing counter-narratives collected from both adoptees and adoptive parents, this study explores how the family and larger society influence racial identity development. The findings suggest a contrast in how the adoptee and adoptive parents define racism, which manifests in how they discuss race. Ulti mately, each adoptee was able to take the messages the adoptive parent sent along with messages society provided and transform them into a personally meaningful racial identity.

Disability Critical Race Theory: Exploring the Intersectional Lineage, Emergence, and Potential Futures of DisCrit in Education.

In this review, we explore how intersectionality has been engaged with through the lens of disability critical race theory (DisCrit) to produce new knowledge. In this chapter, we (1) trace the intellectual lineage for developing DisCrit, (2) review the body of interdisciplinary scholarship incorporating DisCrit to date, and (3) propose the future trajectories of DisCrit, noting challenges and tensions that have arisen. Providing new opportunities to investigate how patterns of oppression uniquely intersect to target students at the margins of Whiteness and ability, DisCrit has been taken up by scholars to expose and dismantle entrenched inequities in education.

Identifying Dysfunctional Education Ecologies: A DisCrit Analysis of Bias in the Classroom

Abstract In this critical theoretical conceptualization situated in Disability Critical Race Theory (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013), we identify the current education system as a series of dysfunctional education ecologies. We next analyze how dysfunctional education ecologies are maintained through implicit bias, consider how these biases may impact classroom interactions, and reframe bias as dysconscious racism (King, 1991). Finally, we explore how school personnel can use transformative praxis (Freire, 1970) to actively dismantle these dysfunctional education ecologies through a shift in both their epistemological and axiological commitments to develop functional ecologies of learning by enacting a DisCrit Classroom Ecology.