Description: Reading Resistance confronts longstanding exclusionary practices in U.S. public schooling. Beth A. Ferri and David J. Connor trace the interconnected histories of race and disability in the public imagination through their nuanced analysis of editorial pages and other public discourses, including political cartoons and eugenics posters. By uncovering how the concept of disability was used to resegregate students of color after the historic Brown decision, the authors argue that special education has played a role in undermining school desegregation. In its critical, interdisciplinary focus on the interlocking politics of race and disability, Reading Resistance offers important contributions to educational research, theory, and policy.
Review Quotes: 'Reading Resistance' presents an important and timely discussion of the intersections between white privilege and ableism and the interconnections between IDEA and Brown v. Board of Education... Of key value is the overview of how race becomes an organizing principle of social life and how mainstream classrooms are constructed through rhetorics of ability, ideologies of normalcy, and rituals of exclusion. At the same time, this book is not 'just theory.' The authors craft their arguments to clarify complex issues and link them with suggestions for practice. Readers will gain a good sense of what is needed to transform classrooms and schools to allow them to be equitable and just, as well as to contribute to a strong democracy in a multicultural society. (Ellen Brantlinger, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Indiana University, Bloomington)
Dramatically demonstrates the historical intertwining of the discourses of race and disability in American education. This portrait will relinquish any lingering doubts about the insidious role of racism in creating the perception that students of color are disproportionately 'disabled.' (Beth Harry, Professor, Special Education, University of Miami, Florida)