Knowledge
Discussion Essay

Qualitative research is intensely personal (Saldana, 2013). As a culturally responsive researcher, budding critical race theorist and ethnographer, I define my positionality as: raced African-American, devoid of inherent privilege, gendered female; classed with little material but great spiritual fortitude, wealth and status. Through the pursuit of a postgraduate education, I critique and write against traditional, ableist, and stratifying perspectives, often rooted in implicit bias and racism. A post critical orientation keeps me focused on the social ills of dominance, oppression, and inequity. A determination to resist the narrative of the absent Black father, impoverished and genetically inferior race, my research interests are intensely personal, partial, positional, and perseverative. I work to understand, and reimage the African American family. 

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Over the last decade, research on race is an emerging topic of study and there has been noticeable growth in published works citing Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the framework. What is less plenteous is how CRT is postulated relative to a researcher’s ontology, epistemological underpinnings, axiology, methodology, and methods. Notwithstanding intersectional issues, a CRT methodology is recognizable by how philosophical, political and ethical questions are established and maintained in relation to racialized issues.

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In a nutshell, my research interests within education center around (a) the disproportionate representation of African Americans in special education, (b) family perception of disability and how that impacts care and treatment within BIPOC communities, and the (c) preparedness of (novice) educators to implement culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally responsive interventions in the RtI process. My research interests are numerous; however, they converge at the intersectionality of race and disability and under the domain of disproportionality of children of color in special education. My ontology, epistemology and axiology are critical in the acquisition and curation of knowledge surrounding my research interests. 

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Disproportionate Representation

While in EDRS 822, Advanced Applications of Qualitative Methods, I had the opportunity to discuss and define my evolving philosophy and paradigm of research. The issue of disproportionality of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners in special education and the cause of the overrepresentation continue to be a problem and source of debate in academia. Research indicates the most prevalent factors that contribute to overrepresentation include poverty, testing bias, perceptions of teachers, lack of cultural awareness and poor professional development that address working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) learners. (Kreskow, 2013). Response to Intervention (RtI) proactively facilitates culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy for CLD students. 

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In EDSE 847, Policy-driven Initiatives in Special Education and Disability Research, I had the opportunity to conduct a literature review Evaluating The Response to Intervention and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to Address Disproportionality of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Specialized Education. This literature review examined the recent professional and empirical literature relative to RtI applications within a CRP context. This review solidified the need for more research of urban and CLD populations showing risk for special education. There is a tremendous void in the literature that speaks to CRP RtI that are specifically designed for urban, minority, and African American learners.

 

The special education disproportionality and poorer school outcomes underscored the urgency for culturally responsive evidence-based interventions that are universally employed for this population. In this review, the Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions reported positive effects for CLD learners, but these interventions were not positioned within RtI schools. There was only one controlled study showing the beneficial use of culturally relevant materials and the study of CLD within an RtI school pointed to the tremendous need for professional development for both RtI and CRP. It was further concluded that rather than rethink the push to reduce disproportionality, policymakers need to greatly multiply efforts to increase resources and the professionalism needed to equip CLD students with fully functioning, evidence-based, culturally relevant, and multi-tiered schools. These efforts include funding of research projects and service centers to provide guidance for effective practices and applications. 

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As we further examined Minority Disproportionate Representation in Special Education, I collaboratively developed a one-page at-a-glance informative white paper and slideshow presentation to discuss patterns of disproportionality, underlying causes and contributing factors, and legal and policy issues. The presentation raised foundational, political, and systemic premises to overrepresentation.  Anastasiou & Kauffman (2017) stated that poverty and cultural differences equated to a disorder. Conner et al. (2019) countered this premise and stated that the only qualifications for special education should be the presence of a disability and the need for specially designed instruction. They noted that special education identification is not the result of neutral sorting and choice and posits that race skews resources, access, and power. CLD students have the potential to be denied access to education that offers capital because the disability identification of White and students of color do not have the same meaning or consequences.

 

Family Perception of Disability and Impact on Care and Treatment

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In EDRS 836 Narrative Inquiry, I had the opportunity to interview parents of four children with Autism who had received a diagnosis within the past five years.  Employing a counternarrative analysis and blackout poetry methodology, this study analyzed the child with disability’s strengths. In the analysis, I drew on Solórzano and Yosso’s (2002) method of counter-storytelling and Valencia and Solórzano’s (1997) view on the language of biological and cultural deficit, to challenge the dominant discourse on ableism, at the intersection of race and disability. 

My positionality included a view of race and ability as social constructs, and given the lens in which I view intersectionality, that positionality was woven throughout my analysis. In the analysis, I took on the role of an ethnographer, studying the hearts and minds of five parents of four African American boys with Autism, and presenting their stories to others. Counter-storytelling served as a powerful means of giving voice to those defined as “living in the margins”. Hearing the strengths, hopes and dreams for these narrator’s (parents’) Black sons with Autism was a powerful counter to the often-forecasted trajectory of this population, and is a necessary disruptor to dominant deficit narratives in K-12 and secondary education.

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The intent of this analysis was to highlight the contrasts between the power narratives in disability identification as listed in the DSM-V and the individual strengths, hopes and dreams and potential trajectories of the children with disabilities within these narratives. The progression of data collection took these authors from the diagnosis to strengths of their sons to their hopes and dreams for their children. The aim of this analysis was to strengthen the families and allow them to change the narrative and take control of who and what defines their son. My analysis intended to “teach others that by combining elements from both the story and the current reality, one can construct another world that is richer than either the story or the reality alone” (Solórzano and Yosso, 2002). 

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Counternarrative analysis with parent perspectives of the day of diagnosis was a powerfully cathartic experience for the authors (parents) and rich experience for the reader.  Retelling the experience caused a shift in the power dynamic once held by the assessor, doctor or school Psychologist. Hearing the strengths, hopes, and dreams for these narrator’s Black sons with Autism was a powerful counter to the often-forecasted trajectory of this population, and a necessary disruptor to dominant deficit narratives in K-12 and secondary education.

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The power shifted and the deficit thinking shifted when the prompts shifted from the diagnosis of the disability to their son’s unique strengths. At that moment, no longer were their sons defined by the DSM-V, or professional’s perceptions of their deficits, they were now sowing words of hope and crafting new narratives of the beauty of their son’s strengths and their hopes and dreams for them.

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Cultural Responsiveness and Future Research

While participating in EDUC 800, Ways of Knowing, I had the opportunity to evaluate my ontology and epistemology and research an unfamiliar way of knowing. Assessing my own “way of knowing” shone light on the possibilities and even challenges derived from others’ ways of knowing. Charged with selecting a way of knowing that we were not familiar with, my eyes were opened to other research inquiry/methodologies that I had not previously been exposed to. The course not only exposed me to unfamiliar scholars, it educated me on how to articulate in both research and practice. My way of knowing transformed from an awareness of race to an understanding that race and ability are socially constructed and implemented to embed social stratification in society. I have transitioned from a recipient of knowledge to a curator of knowledge in my beginning research efforts. My epistemology and methodology have shifted from solely hermeneutics to a critical theory that embraces my activism and examines the impact that race has on social ills.

 

Prior to this class, I was not fully aware that I had a way of knowing or an epistemology by which I approach research questions. As a special educator I viewed research questions from a practitioner lens. Data collection was a mix of numbers and narratives which I now understand was a mixed methods ontology based in constructivism, wherein qualitative and quantitative data centered around a RtI, district assessments and IEP goals. EDRS 800 was invaluable in providing me the vocabulary to specifically identify my processes from a transitioning practitioner to a beginning researcher. 

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Throughout the course, my passion for the oppressed and underrepresented was further affirmed by Friere (1970) and Annamma (2018), and has remained steadfast. What changed was the process I will now go about helping to give the underrepresented and the indigenous voice a platform, and the dedication to research to help enable their liberation. I am committed to use CRT/DisCrit as the methodology for future research of this population.

 

Future Researcher

As future faculty, it is imperative that I continue to fine tune my positionality, acquire research skills and implementation towards a productive scholarship trajectory. EDRS 811, Quantitative Methods in Educational Research, EDRS 812 Qualitative Methods in Educational Research, EDSE 846 Assessment, Evaluation and Intervention in Special Education Research are just a few of the courses (along with the other previously mentioned) that have supplied me with skills, knowledge, and opportunities to become acquainted with current research and practices and embark on my own research interests. I am excited about future opportunities to continue to grow and develop, receive and curate knowledge.


 

References

 

Anastasiou, D., & Kauffman, J. M. (2017). A social constructionist approach to disability: Implications for special education. In Exploring Education (pp. 365-382). Routledge.

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Annamma, S. A., Ferri, B. A., & Connor, D. J. (2018). Disability critical race theory: Exploring the intersectional lineage, emergence, and potential futures of DisCrit in education. Review of Research in Education, 42(1), 46-71.

 

Conner, C. Virtual Learning and Early Special Education.

 

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. 

 

Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23-44.

 

Valencia, R. R., & Solórzano, D. G. (2012). Contemporary deficit thinking. In The evolution of deficit thinking (pp. 160-210). Routledge.