ERIC Number: EJ1441119
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0040-5841
EISSN: EISSN-1543-0421
What's a Black Feminist Doing in a Field Like Special Education?
Theory Into Practice, v63 n4 p353-365 2024
Special educators are increasingly drawing from intersectionality and Black feminist theory to make sense of the disproportionate deleterious outcomes experienced by racialized students labeled with disabilities. While intersectionality gains a stronger hold in special education discourse, agencies like the Florida Department of Education are misrepresenting Black feminist theory and intersectionality as "ranking people" based on their social identities. Audre Lorde--a member of The Combahee River Collective credited for generating an intersectional shift in feminist discourse--called on the creative use of difference to push back on the marginalization of multiply-marginalized women. Lorde asserted that explicitly attending to the diversity within human experiences challenges harmful attitudes that frame differences as markers of inferiority, deviance, or failure. In this article, I draw from Black feminism and Audre Lorde's theorizing about difference to present a framework for educators who advocate for specialized education programming that affirm student differences.
Descriptors: Special Education Teachers, African Americans, Feminism, Advocacy, Special Education, Intersectionality, Theories, Students with Disabilities, Student Diversity, Minority Groups, Race
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A