This chapter draws on disability critical race studies (DisCrit) to present a vision for anti-discriminatory early childhood special education. As a field, early childhood special education is dominated by a medical model of disability oriented towards “fixing” children who do not fit white, nondisabled, middle-class ways of being. Young children of color with disabilities are thus frequently subjected to surveillance, control, and isolation, their ways of being policed by a white nondisabled gaze. This chapter counters the dominant narrative in early childhood special education by offering two critical shifts needed for the field to be more liberatory for young children of color with disabilities. The first shift involves moving from deficit-oriented views of the children towards capacities-based views. When educators are able to honor gifts that young children of color with disabilities possess, they can create meaningful relationships with children and see them more fully. This serves as the basis for the second shift: moving from restrictive pedagogical approaches aimed at changing young children of color with disabilities towards a more liberatory pedagogy aimed at creating opportunities for children to show their capacious selves. With specific examples from the field and literature, this chapter offers educators concrete suggestions for making the shifts described in order to advance an anti-discriminatory and liberatory field of early childhood special education.

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Anti-discriminatory Early Childhood Special Education

  • Soyoung Park

摘要

This chapter draws on disability critical race studies (DisCrit) to present a vision for anti-discriminatory early childhood special education. As a field, early childhood special education is dominated by a medical model of disability oriented towards “fixing” children who do not fit white, nondisabled, middle-class ways of being. Young children of color with disabilities are thus frequently subjected to surveillance, control, and isolation, their ways of being policed by a white nondisabled gaze. This chapter counters the dominant narrative in early childhood special education by offering two critical shifts needed for the field to be more liberatory for young children of color with disabilities. The first shift involves moving from deficit-oriented views of the children towards capacities-based views. When educators are able to honor gifts that young children of color with disabilities possess, they can create meaningful relationships with children and see them more fully. This serves as the basis for the second shift: moving from restrictive pedagogical approaches aimed at changing young children of color with disabilities towards a more liberatory pedagogy aimed at creating opportunities for children to show their capacious selves. With specific examples from the field and literature, this chapter offers educators concrete suggestions for making the shifts described in order to advance an anti-discriminatory and liberatory field of early childhood special education.