In the Eye of the Storm: When Retreat Is an Unacceptable Option
In this article, we argue that students, families, educators, administrators, and policymakers are in the eye of a storm ravaging the U.S. education system. The eye is defined by a growing commitment to top-down policies and practices that dismiss culture, history, and context and attempt to improve the education of all students with and without dis/abilities through standardizing the education process. In a rush to coordinate and align systems, communities, families, educators, and students are subjected to standard protocols that seek to govern and regulate the personal, relational process of learning. The need for formal education has never been greater; the question is to what end? Innovation comes not from standardizing what is to be known but from expanding how we question the tools we use for learning and the degree to which our learning communities honor diversity in thought, culture, and activity. Communities will thrive where their members have the capacity to learn collectively, synthesize information and resources, and produce knowledges to solve the great challenges of the 21st century. We propose educator learning that centers students’ needs and capacities and advance the notion of creating intersectional learning spaces that bring students, educators, and diverse communities together.Abstract
Contributor Notes
Author Bio
Professor Elizabeth Kozleski is a faculty member at Stanford University and the University of Kansas. She engages systems change and research on equity and justice issues in inclusive education. Her research interests include the analysis of systems change in education, how teachers learn in practice in complex, diverse school settings, as well how educational practices improve student learning.
Inna Stepaniuk is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Special Education, University of Kansas. Anchored in critical disability studies, decolonial theory, and sociocultural, constructivist approaches to learning and teaching, her research (a) exposes the politics of dehumanization embedded in educational systems and (b) support teachers in becoming social justice-oriented educational leaders. She has authored and co-authored articles on inclusive education, equity-driven systems change in education, and disability policy in the context of intersectionality.
William Proffitt is a doctoral student in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. He explores and writes about the intersections of race, class, gender, dis/ability and justice. Specifically, his work foregrounds the experiences and voices of Black boys with and without dis/ability labels, their families, and the communities in which they are embedded. He seeks to improve the schooling experiences of all students, especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds, via re-mediating the practices of schools and school professionals.
