While disability is recognised by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as an evolving concept, the language of positive behaviour support has not kept pace with the current human rights-based approach. The widely-used terms 'challenging behaviour' and 'behaviours that challenge' imply that the behaviour…

This narrative inquiry explored the schooling and professional experiences of seven teachers who were labeled with learning disabilities, and how those experiences affected their career decisions, teaching strategies, as well as relationships with their students, families, and friends. Their stories also challenged the associated stigmas and…

Background: Speech in individuals with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) is a complex myriad of presenting symptoms. It is uniquely associated with the structural difference of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI), together with a wide and heterogeneous range of other aetiologies which often co-occur. The nature of the speech sound disorder (SSD)…

Purpose: The language that school professionals use to describe disabled students can reveal and perpetuate ableist assumptions. Professionals' language choices can also challenge ableist attitudes to help create more inclusive, equitable learning environments. This tutorial seeks to guide speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and other school…

There have been numerous recent calls in literacy research and teacher education to disrupt the 'struggling reader' label, but a dearth of empirical studies on the topic. This qualitative analysis explores the complex issues preservice teachers (PSTs) faced as they examined young readers' sense-making through a reading assessment assignment. Our…

This thematic content analysis used frameworks of stigma and critical race theory to examine how mass media represented the life and police homicide of Eric Garner. Findings demonstrate how systemic racism and ableism are reflected in and created through the media's stigmatizing processes of labeling and stereotyping, as well as through voices it…

Handicapped, special, or diverse? Segregated, mainstreamed, or included? The field of disability and difference within education, is vast and wide-ranging. This review of the literature highlights how, although we have come far in the last 40 years, there is still much to learn about effective inclusion of disabled children in early childhood…

The experiences of girls of color labeled with significant cognitive disabilities in middle school and high school have historically been excluded from educational research. This study sought to better understand how girls of color labeled with significant cognitive disabilities navigated multimodal discourses and classroom practices as well as…

Navigating the acronyms and labels when working in schools can be challenging and overwhelming. But knowing the appropriate terminology when working with students with disabilities is an important part of understanding students' diagnoses, communicating with parents and other school personnel, and engaging in effective teaching practices to foster…

The attitudes towards inclusion and the terms used related to special needs by pre-service teachers in three Finnish universities were studied. Inclusion is the main educational policy in Finland, and special solutions are avoided when possible. With a questionnaire and a brief survey, data from 488 pre-service teachers (PSTs) were collected and…

The compartmentalization of (dis)ability from race and ethnicity, and other identity markers serves to maintain these constructs at a safe distance from one another. Beyond these broader socially constructed categories, there are also the subtler messages about normativity that manifest in gradients of ability, color, behavior, capital, expression…

The article provides an overview of relevant theoretical models of the stereotyping and representation of otherness. Based on an analysis of examples from literature and the mass media, the author follows S. Gilman in comparing the pathological and non-pathological forms for perceiving and representing Others. The first set of approaches takes a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the key issues surrounding teacher/staff disability disclosures in the UK's further education (FE) sector. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted in a medium-sized FE college (case study) setting in the South East of England. To compare the experiences,…

Researchers have begun to inquire into the experiences of young people with ADHD, including how they define ADHD and how a diagnosis of ADHD affects them. ADHD is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder and diagnosis is frequently requested by school professionals. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of young…

There are different ways of theorising dyslexia and different ways of constructing meanings around dyslexia in different learning contexts. This paper considers the role of neoliberalist ideology in shaping conversations about dyslexia and "fairness" during two focus group conversations analysed as part of a study into the discursive…