The purpose of this article is to engage crip theory in a critical analysis of the calls within elementary education for a return to normalcy. I seek to question the ways COVID-19 has reinforced orientations towards normalcy by asking where normalcy went and how the calls for its return reveal the fundamental limits of inclusion within schools.…

Beginning with a storied moment of encounter at an academic conference in which several scholars confidently asserted the need to "humanize those who have been dehumanized", I engage in autobiographical narrative inquiry into my tensions with this seemingly "common sense" pedagogical belief and curricular approach. I do so by…