We Can Do Better: Critically Reframing Special Education Research and Practice at the Intersections of Disability and Cultural and Linguistic Diversity for Young Children

Abstract

We reviewed three existing reviews of literature: two related to cultural and linguistic diversity in well-regarded special education research outlets including Advances in Special Education, and the third regarding constructions of culture, race, disability, and risk in early childhood and early childhood special education (ECSE) literature. Some of our findings reflected ongoing oppressions for young children at the intersections of race, disability, and other forms of social difference to which negative treatment has been attached, including static and deficit-based framings of disability, reliance on whiteness, and English as the norm for developmental benchmarks, and failure to account for disability beyond medical models. We present a preliminary framework for special education research and practice considerations in order to remediate these issues in ECSE for young learners of color, among others, with disabilities.

Citation

King Thorius, K.A., Moore, T.S. and Coomer, M.N. (2019), "We Can Do Better: Critically Reframing Special Education Research and Practice at the Intersections of Disability and Cultural and Linguistic Diversity for Young Children", Special Education for Young Learners with Disabilities (Advances in Special Education, Vol. 34), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0270-401320190000034010

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