Time and Space in the Analysis of Equity in Inclusive Education

in the U. S.

Al!edo J. Artiles, Elizabeth B. Kozleski, & Federico Waito"er

Arizona State University

Poster presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Denver, CO

Race & Ability

For example, it is possible to support the inclusion of students with disabilities, without necessarily seeing this as connected to racial integration. Similarly, one can argue for racial integration without supporting the inclusion of students with disabilities (Ferri & Connor, 2005, p. 454).

... the histories of “race” and “disability” in the [U.S.] are long, complicated, and at times overlapping, but also distinct. Each is uniquely situated in a time and place in which a confluence of interest coalesced to attempt to forge significant social change.

School segregation has undergone shifting and contradictory changes over the last 40 years ... as the 21st century begins, the proportion of blacks enrolled in predominately minority schools has returned to the levels described in EEO (Gamoran & Long, 2007, p. 25)

Race & Educational Equity

Disproportionate Representation

“The extent to which membership in a given ethnic group affects the probability of being placed in a specific disability category” (Oswald et al., 1999, p. 198) Over- and under-representation. High incidence or subjective

disability categories: Learning disabilities (LD), mental retardation (MR), emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD), and speech and language impairments (SLI).

In the low incidence

categories ... in which the problem

is observable outside the school

context and is typically diagnosed

by medical professionals, no

marked disproportionality exists (NRC, 2002,

p. 1)

Sped Placement Patterns by Race

MR: African Americans were 2.35 more likely than White peers.

LD: Native Americans were 24% more likely...

E/BD: African Americans were 59% more likely... [Source: NRC, 2002]

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Purpose

1. Transcend limits of traditional approaches to equity in this literature.2. Contribute to how the problem is theorized. Grounded in the following assumptions:

Dialectics of macro and micro forces.

Historical analysis.

Historical link between race and ability.

History of local cultural practices.Role of power in human activity.

3. Inform future research and policy.6

Cultural Historical Analysis (Artiles, 2008)

Three levels of analysis

1. Beyond an exclusive focus on individual deficits: The spatial distribution of opportunity.

2. Difference and its discontents: Unpacking the social ecologies of competence management.

3. The archaeology of inequity across time scales.7

Cultural Historical Analysis (Artiles, 2008)

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Cultural nature of human development situated in time and space (Rogoff, 2003).

Structured silences (Yeakey, 2000) in geographies of

opportunity.

Link research on human development in formal and informal education contexts with “development regimes” (Tate, 2008).

1. The Spatial Distribution of Opportunity

Interactions that foster urban inequality (Bobo et al., 2000)

Understand racial inequity in special education in the context of...

Changing labor market dynamics (e.g., poverty, income, unemployment, job locations).

Racial attitudes and relations (e.g., racial stereotyping).

Racial residential segregation.

Cultural resources/assets.

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1. Geographies ... Beyond Blaming the Other

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In particular, the [NRC] committee calls attention to the recommendation of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children to eliminate lead from the housing stock by 2010 (NRC, 2002, p. 11)

Source: Center for Disease Control. Surveillance for Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Children -

U.S., 1997--2001. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, September 12, 2003/52 (SS10); 1-21.

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2. Managing Ecologies of Difference

Inclusive education is used in subtly disparate ways across social worlds to manage diversity and cooperation among school professionals, ultimately having important equity consequences.

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Sped as Systems of Boundary Objects

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Objects that “inhabit several intersecting worlds ... and satisfy the informational requirements of each of them ... [these objects] are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites.

Sped as Systems of Boundary Objects

They are weakly structured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual-site use. These objects may be abstract or concrete. They have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognizable, a means to translation. The creation and management of boundary objects is a key process in developing and maintaining coherence across intersecting social worlds (Star & Griesemer, 1989, p. 393).

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The Path to Special Education

•!General Education •!OTL & PRI

!"#"$$%&'($)*"+,$"-'

•!Assessment

.&/0/1/&/23'4""560' •!Placement

in Sped

()-27(&%*"8"62'!"9/":-'

1

2 3

4 5

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Types of Boundary Objects (Star & Griesemer, 1989)

Repositories

Ideal types

Coincident boundaries

Standardized forms

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Relative risk ratios

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1 2

3

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Chicago’s largest Latino community

93.5% Latino - mostly of Mexican heritage

22% of households are headed by women.

Source of all demographic and education data: UIC Neighborhoods Initiative www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/uicni/partnerships/pilsen.htm

Chicago Neighborhood

* 65% of children drop out of school* 70% of Pilsen adults have never completed the ninth grade.

Chicago Neighborhood

Gang violence widely considered 2nd only to East Los Angeles13% unemployment rate for all Pilsen workers vs. 7% for the rest of Chicago.

* 31% of household incomes < $15K / year.

* > 1/3 of children live below the federal poverty level.

* Median household incomes are 20% below the citywide level.

Standardized Forms: Risk Ratios

Managing Ecologies of Difference

Managing Ecologies of Difference

Managing Ecologies of Difference

Toward an Interdisciplinary Model to Study Race & Ability Interlockings

Understand how educational inequity is constructed at the intersection of macro (policy) and micro (local practices) scales through translation and contextualization processes.

Policy as practice in “zones of mediation” (Welner, 2001) across scales.

Educational inequity emerges at the intersection of multiple sectors (e.g., health, labor, housing).

Educational inequity is constructed amidst ecologies of constraints and resources.

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