Voices and Visions from Ethnoculturally Diverse Young People with Disabilities - Hardcover

Ajodhia-Andrews, Amanda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9463002340 ISBN 13: 9789463002349

Publisher: Sense Publishers, 2015

Synopsis

Many Canadian children from minority status groups experience long-term academic complexities, influencing their sense of school belonging and engagement. Research demonstrates children with intersecting differences of race, ethnicity, language, and disability, and those in their middle years (10-13 years old), undergo heightened academic challenges. Yet, what are children with disabilities' personal schooling experiences, and how may these insights support inclusive learning, teaching, and sense of belonging? Within Toronto, one of the most diverse Canadian cities, this book explores the stories and experiences of six middle years children with intersecting differences of race, ethnicity, language, and disabilities (particularly autism). Through narrative and critical discourse analysis research methods the children's views were accessed via a mosaic multi-method data collection approach, including their own photography, drawings, journal writings, imaginative story games, and interview texts. The children's narratives illustrate their understandings of differences, learning, and inclusion. This book presents innovative insights highlighting the voices of children with disabilities as they navigate through complex issues of diversity and share how these impact their understandings and experiences of school inclusion and exclusion. The author advocates inviting the voices of children with intersecting differences into educational conversations and research processes, as they may adeptly advance areas of inclusion and diversity.

About this title

Review:

"Provides a much needed addition to the body of Canadian literature on inclusive education and experiences of disability for young people. The book examines race and ethnicity as a central identity interconnected with disability. Ajodhia-Andrews uses first person accounts of what it means to be a disabled and racialized youth in Canada. The growing body of DisCrit (cite) literature globally is changing the way in which we understand the complexity of disability identities. DisCrit theory is advancing both Critical Disability Studies, and Critical Race Theory, and forging a new way of understanding and theorizing human experience. Ajodhia-Andrews adds to this field through documentation of young people's perspectives. The young people in Ajodhia-Andrews book communicate through poetry, photography, word maps, and narrative. The complex explanations of identity, difference, disability, and experiences in school are extremely compelling. These accounts are refreshing, honest, and realistic in the portrayal of what it means to belong."--Kathryn Underwood, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University

About this edition

• Publisher: Sense Publishers
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 9463002340
• ISBN 13: 9789463002349
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304