Paper: A Thrice Told Tale of Time: Dis/Ability, Identity, and Educational Responsibility
Author: Lynn Swann
Critical educators typically seek to find and hear lost and marginalized voices within
educational processes. We also seek to expose those systems and practices of professional, institutional work which muffle or ignore certain voices, which support
and veil the marginalization of persons (Danforth, 1994, p. 57). This paper presents the
educational experiences of Donnie, a former student of mine with multiple dis/abilites, in his 22nd year of life, in his 12th year in the same elementary classroom, in rural western North Carolina, in 1992. His story is told as an educational ethno-biography through three texts – an ethnography, a series of fieldnotes, interviews, and headnotes (Ottenberg, 1990, p. 144), and a piece of fiction. As an interpretive text, the first person language of this ethno-biography is not limited to Donnie’s actual words as recorded in interviews. The first person account is a negotiated text, co-written by both Donnie and me to speak from his experiences and our relationship.
Danforth, S. (1994). A life history of a child considered emotionally disturbed: Critical
interpretations from researcher and child. Dissertation Abstracts International, 54
(01), 534B. (UMI No. 9504481)
Ottenberg, S. (1990). Thirty Years of Fieldnotes: Changing Relationships to the Text. In Roger Sanjek, ed., Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology, pp. 139-60. Ithaca, N.Y.: CornellUniversity Press.
Paper: Listening to the Voices of Parents of Children with Disabilities
Author: Katharine Shepherd
In spite of federal mandates to include parents of children with disabilities as partners in education, professionals and policy makers have often minimized or overlooked parents’ voices with respect to the futures of their children (Pugach & Johnson, 2002). What can be done to bring parents’ voices into conversations about how to create just schools for all students? This paper presents the results of focus forums conducted with parents of children with disabilities from around the United States. The purpose of the forums was to hear parents from diverse backgrounds speak for themselves about what works and what doesn’t, and how they and others might be supported in expressing their voices and assuming greater leadership roles in individual and policy decision-making.
Pugach, M.C., & Johnson, L. (2002). Collaborative practitioners, collaborative schools (2nd ed.). Denver: Love Publishing.