How Teaching Shapes Our Thinking About Disabilities

David J. Connor (Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University) is Professor Emeritus of Hunter College (Learning Disabilities Program) and the Graduate Center (Urban Education Program), City University of New York. He is the author/editor of numerous books and articles, many in collaboration with Beth A. Ferri. Beth A. Ferri (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is Professor of Inclusive Education and Disability Studies at Syracuse University, where she also coordinates the doctoral program in Special Education. She, frequently in collaboration with David J. Connor, has published widely on the intersections of race, disability, and gender.

David J. Connor/Beth A. Ferri: Introduction: Learning from Teachers’ Lives – Jan W. Valle: How I Got Here from There: The Road to Disability Studies in Education – Deborah J. Gallagher: To My Students, with Gratitude: A Retrospective Journey of Teaching [Special Education] – Beth A. Ferri: Snapshots of School – Scot Danforth: From Harmful to Helpful – Classroom Spaces and School Structures – Kathleen M. Collins: “Why Is Lisa’s classroom in the basement?” Reflections on Noticing and Disrupting Exclusion – Federico R. Waitoller: Fictionalized Memories: The Making of a Research Identity in Four Seasons – Erin McCloskey: Paintings on Clear Plastic that Hang from the Ceiling – Brent Elder: The Promises We Keep – Pedagogy and Practices – Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides: Humanizing “Special” Educational Practices – Christine Ashby: “Off to Another Glorious Day of Educational Opportunity”: But for Whom? – Susan Baglieri: How I Learned to Be a Teacher in Room 137 – Julia White: Giving Points, Pathologizing Race, and Reading Harry Potter – Families – Mildred Boveda: Surprising Home Visits – Maria Cioè- Peña: Teaching as Oppression; Teaching as Liberation – Srikala Naraian: Searching for Competence: (T)reading the Spaces between Ways of Knowing – Linda Ware: No Bat Required – Both Sides of the Desk – April Coughlin: Education Is Power: But Only if You Can Get into the Building – David I. Hernández- Saca: Recovering the Spirit – Saili S. Kulkarni: Journey as a Special Education Teacher of Color with Dis/abilities – Suzanne Stolz: My Disabled Teacher Presence – Beth A. Ferri/David J. Connor: Conclusion: Bridging Theory and Practice through Story – Index.

“This book is essential reading for accomplished as well as aspiring educators. Its power lies in twenty portraits of the personal and professional transformation that occurs when educators grapple with the dissonance between their own experience and the academic knowledge perpetuated by the field of special education. The authenticity of these stories prompts us to embrace our own moments of cognitive dissonance and courageously defy taken-for-granted or deeply indoctrinated precepts as we celebrate our own transformation.”—Beth Harry, Professor Emeritus, School of Education, University of Miami