Writing, Identity, and the Other

Abstract

Although inclusive education is often characterized as a special education initiative, both general and special educators must assume responsibility for all children’s learning as mandated by 1997 amendments to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. The practice and implementation of inclusion policy in both K-12 public education and teacher education necessitates close examination of many issues that extend beyond compliance concerns. This article problematizes two related aspects of inclusion reform and its implementation in practice: persistence of unexamined assumptions about disability and uninspired curriculum. The author begins with an overview of humanities-based disability studies, an emerging field of scholarship that holds great promise for reimagining disability. Then the author describes a partnership between a secondary language arts teacher and herself wherein they created and cotaught Writing, Identity, and the Other, a curriculum unit informed by humanities-based disability studies. This example provides insight to the question, Dare we do disability studies?