Affiliation:
1. University of Maine at Farmington
Abstract
This paper takes a philosophically informed approach to what it means to make sense of the world. Specifically, it asks how understanding might be enhanced when we listen to young children who are labelled with disabilities. To address this question, I describe a lesson I taught as a guest teacher in which my understanding of both a rock and an activity, descriptive inquiry, were challenged and expanded through the participation of a child identified with a significant language-based disability. To explore this event and its implications for what it means to teach and know, I juxtapose Jacques Derrida, Miranda Fricker, and Jacques Rancière with each other and with my descriptions of the event.
Reference32 articles.
1. Abu El-Haj, T. R. A., & Rubin, B. C. (2009). Realizing the equity-minded aspirations of detracking and inclusion: Toward a capacity-oriented framework for teacher education. Curriculum Inquiry, 39(3), 435–463.
2. Alberto, S., Fonseca, A., & Stein, S. J. (2016). Hitting the switch: ¡Sí se puede! Bank Street Occasional Paper Series, no. 36.
3. Arendt, H. (1971). The life of the mind (vol. 1). Harcourt.
4. Arendt, H. (1998). The human condition (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
5. Ballenger, C. (1999). Teaching other people’s children: Literacy and learning in a bilingual classroom. Teachers College Press.