PRESENTING SUPERB RESEARCH THAT ADVANCES THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
Attaining a Just Future
Disability Studies Examines Curriculum and Transition for Students Labeled with Intellectual Disability
- Publisher
Myers Education Press - ISBN 9781975509491
- Language English
- Pages 275 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
- Request Exam Copy
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- Publisher
Myers Education Press - ISBN 9781975509507
- Language English
- Pages 275 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
- Request E-Exam Copy
Attaining a Just Future: Disability Studies Examines Curriculum and Transition for Students Labeled with Intellectual Disability is a critical volume in the area of Disability Studies in Education that investigates current trends in curricular access for 14- to 21-year-old students with intellectual disabilities (ID), offering revelatory insights into how students with ID are understood and taught in U.S. schools. By analyzing the state of curricular access for students with ID through a myriad of perspectives, this book reveals that ideological barriers, educational policies, and neoliberal priorities substantially contribute to ongoing segregation and unequal outcomes for people with ID in U.S. schools and society. It examines how commonly used school curricular practices play a role in sustaining segregation and negative outcomes experienced by people with ID labels.
The book centers the experiences of six young adults with ID labels, who, along with their families, were qualitatively interviewed with the goal of understanding the complexities of curriculum access and future planning from a first-person perspective. In addition, professionals who work with young adults with ID labels were also interviewed, including transition program directors, teachers, child study team members, administrators, a curriculum specialist, a transition advocate and a state-level employee. A mixed-methods survey was disseminated, which received 77 responses from teachers, administrators, and transition specialists regarding their usage and understanding of curriculum for their students. Finally, an analysis of publicly available documents from the websites of five commonly used published curricula targeted to students with significant disabilities was conducted.
The first chapter in the book offers the readers information about the six students centered in this project and then provides contextual policy frameworks, a review of literature, and an overview of the intersectional theoretical approach that guides the analysis throughout the book. Chapter two considers the role that the Least Restrictive Environment policy plays in concretizing tracking in alignment to curricular opportunities for students with ID. Chapter three digs into the kinds of content curricular publishing companies target to high school and transition-aged students with ID, professional beliefs about curriculum for students with ID, and the learning goals students and families have for themselves. Chapter four unpacks the concept of “independence” within special education and how it becomes a justification for funneling students away from academic learning. Chapter five evaluates both segregative and inclusive practices found in 18-21 transition program planning, curricula and programming. Finally, chapter six highlights best-practices, advocacy tactics, and teaching approaches that can lead to improved outcomes for young adults with ID labels.
Overall, Attaining a Just Future uses a variety of perspectives to investigate the kinds of curricular decisions made either alongside or on behalf of young people with ID labels. This book reveals that the curricular choices made on behalf of many young adults with ID are often not aligned with their desires and are often based upon ideologies about intellectual functioning itself, rather than being based on the individual interests, cultural backgrounds, potential, skills, or ambitions of the young person. Ultimately, the book offers educators, administrators, advocates, disabled people, and families tools and ways of thinking that can lead to more just and inclusive futures for transition-aged students with ID labels.
Perfect for courses such as: Foundations of Inclusive Education; Foundations in Curriculum Studies; Special Education and Educational Leadership; Inclusion and Educational Leadership; Special Education Law and Policy; Pedagogy in Secondary Inclusive Education; Disability Studies in Education; Foundations and Philosophies in Inclusive Education; Issues, Policies, and Trends in Inclusive Education; Inclusive Methods for Middle and Secondary Schools
“Attaining a Just Future offers a crucial examination of the flawed assumptions built directly into the ideology and structure of education for students with intellectual disability (ID). Bacon demonstrates that students with ID praise their inclusive opportunities as building valuable skills and relationships, while the education system (e.g., the organization of classes, prepackaged curriculum) continues to overemphasize repetitive drilling and surveillance of functional skills in segregated settings. In doing so, education professionals fundamentally misunderstand and constrain access to the range of knowledge and skills foundational for a rich and dignified life. An important book for all those interested in building a more inclusive path forward.”
Allison C. Carey, Professor of Sociology, Shippensburg University
“Every education professional who works with students labeled disabled must read this book. Drawing from the experiences told by students with intellectual disabilities, their families, and the educators who work with them, Bacon reveals how school practices can limit opportunity even while earnestly aiming to provide them. This important book challenges long-standing assumptions rooted in deficit-based thinking, market-driven curriculum development, and the persistent failure of individualized educational planning to prioritize students over systems. Bacon also offers hopeful pathways forward by highlighting the efficacy of inclusive practices, person-centered approaches, and collaborative partnerships that honor students as experts in their own lives. Whether working with younger or older learners, educators, administrators, and policymakers should be attuned to how long-term, cumulative education practices can disable and enable the life chances of their students, which are set in motion before transition planning often occurs. This book is a timely and necessary contribution to conversations about disability, agency, equity, and outcomes in education.”
Susan Baglieri, Ed.D., Professor of Special Education, Teaching and Learning Department, Montclair State University
“Attaining a Just Future: Disability Studies Examines Curriculum and Transition for Students Labeled with Intellectual Disability should be required reading for anyone connected to the education of students with Intellectual Disability. Bacon does a skillful job weaving multiple data sources to paint a picture of current realities, while illuminating what is possible when we presume competence and respect all students as learners and citizens. This work speaks back to the prevailing discourses of low expectations and “functional curriculum” and centers the lived experiences of disabled students as the experts on their own lives. This book is theoretically driven but provides practical tools to support educators as they work to operationalize a more inclusive vision and create more expansive and student-centered transition opportunities. I will absolutely be assigning this book in my teacher education courses.”
Christine Ashby, Ph.D., Syracuse University School of Education
“A Necessary Call to Reimagine What’s Possible. This book is a frank and urgent examination of the systemic barriers facing students with intellectual disability—and a compelling argument for why the field must do better. Dr. Bacon does not shy away from naming the structural problems head-on: policies like LRE (least restrictive environment) that inadvertently codify segregation, persistent unemployment gaps, and limited access to postsecondary education. These are not framed as abstract policy concerns, but as real constraints on real lives. What makes the book particularly valuable is its challenge to practitioners to examine their own assumptions. Whose vision of a “good life” is guiding our work? Are we centering student assets and aspirations, or defaulting to deficit-based thinking that caps expectations before students even get started? These are uncomfortable questions, and the book asks them without flinching. The tone balances critique with genuine hope. Dr. Bacon acknowledges meaningful progress while insisting that progress is not enough—that we need to “dream so much bigger” than our training has prepared us to do. That combination of honesty and optimism makes the book feel less like an indictment and more like a rallying call. Recommended for educators, policymakers, and advocates who want both a clear-eyed diagnosis of where the field falls short and the motivation to push for something better.”
Jennifer A. Kurth, Ph.D., Chair and Professor, Department of Special Education, Affiliated Faculty, Kansas University Center on Disabilities, University of Kansas
Acknowledgments
Foreword
by Beth Ferri
Chapter 1: Theoretical, Research, and Policy Contexts for Understanding Curriculum and Intellectual Disability in the United States
Chapter 2: Connections Between the Least Restrictive Environment Continuum and Curricular Access
Chapter 3: Multiple Perspectives on What Students with Intellectual Disabilities Should Spend Time Learning in School
Chapter 4: The In/dependence Curricular Quandary for Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Chapter 5: “It’s Not Like They’ve Transitioned to Anywhere”: An Analysis of 18 to 21 Transition Program Planning and Curricula
Chapter 6: Understandings and Implications for Knowing and Responding to Students with Intellectual Disability Labels in School
Appendix A: Research Methods
Appendix B: Curriculum Adaptation Decision-Making Guide: Keeping Expectations and Support High
Appendix C: Person-Centered Student Information Sheet
Appendix D: Inclusive Versus Segregative Features of 18 to 21 Transition Programs
About the Author
Index
NOTE: Table of Contents subject to change up until publication date.
Jessica K. Bacon
Dr. Jessica Bacon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Montclair State University, where she teaches classes on inclusive education and disability studies. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education from Syracuse University in 2012. At Montclair State University, she is the program coordinator for the early childhood and elementary dual degree and dual certification inclusive education programs. With Dr. Susan Baglieri, Dr. Bacon is a co-founder of the Increasing Access to College project, which offers inclusive postsecondary programming opportunities for young adults with intellectual disabilities. She is currently serving on the board of directors of TASH, an organization that advocates for the inclusion and rights of people with significant disabilities. Dr. Bacon is also a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer, where she advocates for youth in the foster system. Her scholarship centers disability studies in education theory in application to inclusive education, educational policy, critical curriculum studies, and inclusive postsecondary education for early adults with intellectual disability labels. Dr. Bacon has published in journals such as Teaching Disability Studies, Critical Education, Young Exceptional Children, Curriculum Inquiry, Disability & Society, and the International Journal of Inclusive Education.