Who Decides?

Power, Disability, and Educational Leadership

Edited by:
Catherine A. O'Brien, Gallaudet University
William R. Black, University of South Florida
Arnold B. Danzig, San José State University

A volume in the series: Research and Theory in Educational Administration. Editor(s): Arnold B. Danzig, San José State University. William R. Black, University of South Florida.

Published 2022

Over the last quarter century, educational leadership as a field has developed a broad strand of research that engages issues of social justice, equity and diversity. This effort includes the work of many scholars who advocate for a variety of equity-oriented leadership preparation approaches. Critical scholarship in Education Administration and Educational Politics is concerned with questions of power and in various ways asks questions around who gets to decide. In this volume, we ask who decides how to organize schools around criteria of ability and/or disability and what these decisions imply for leadership in schools. In line with this broader critical tradition of inquiry, this volume seeks to interrogate policies, research and personnel preparation practices which constitute interactions, discourses, and institutions that construct and enact ability and disability within the disciplinary field of education leadership. To do so, we present contributions from multidisciplinary perspectives.

The volume is organized around four themes: 1. Leadership and Dis/Ability: Ontology, Epistemology, and Intersectionalities; 2. Educational Leaders and Dis/ability: Policies in Practice; 3. Experience and Power in Schools; 4. Advocacy, Leverage, and the Preparation of School Leaders. Intertwined within each theme are chapters, which explore theoretical and conceptual themes along with chapters that focus on empirical data and narratives that bring personal experiences to the discussion of disabilities and to the multiple ways in which disability shapes experiences in schools. Taken as a whole, the volume covers new territory in the study of educational leadership and dis/abilities at home, school, and work.

CONTENTS
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION. Introduction, Catherine O’Brien, William R. Black, Arnold B. Danzig, and Adam Rea. SECTION II: LEADERSHIP AND DIS/ABILITY: ONTOLOGY, EPISTEMOLOGY, AND INTERSECTIONALITIES. Red Is the Most Beautiful Color: Reflections From a Nonspeaking Autistic Educator of Nonspeaking Autistic Students, Marrok Sedgwick. Ability and Belonging: Contested Ontology and Epistemology That Shape School Practice, Joshua Bornstein and Holly Manaseri. On Being Annoying: Neurodivergence and Mood Disorders as a Black Face in a White Space, JPB Gerald. Decision-Making in the Era of Postmodern Audism: Examining the Colonizing Normate, S. J. Wright, Gloshanda Lawyer, and E. H. Bart IV. Shedding Light on Disability and Race in a North American Linguistic Minority Context: A DisCrit Analysis of Special Education in Quebec, Tya Collins, Corina Borri-Anadon, and Marie-Odile Magnan. SECTION III: EDUCATIONAL LEADERS AND DISABILITY: POLICIES IN PRACTICE. Special Education Services: Historical Underpinnings for Educational Administrators, Nikki L. Murdick and Jo Nell Wood. What Is in an IEP? A Special Education Teacher’s Reflection on IEP Narratives and Practices, Eleanor X. Mehta. Leadership, Equity, and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides. Latinx Families and Disability: The Intersections of Identity, Experiences, and Siblinghood, Denia G. Bradshaw. Multitiered Pedagogies of Pathologization: Disability, Race, and Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports in a Diverse Elementary School, Irene H. Yoon. Reimagining Early Education Leadership: Spiritual -Based Leadership Meets Democratic Experimentalism, Angela Passero Jones and Roderick Jones. Seeing the Able: Disability Through the Eyes of a Younger Sister, Molly Greer. Stuck in a Poor Post-School Outcomes Loop for Students With Significant Disabilities: What We Can Learn From Arizona, Erica S. McFadden and Julie Whitaker. SECTION IV: EXPERIENCE AND POWER IN SCHOOLS. In Our Own Words: Special Education Teachers of Color With Dis/Abilities, Saili S. Kulkarni, Samuel Bland, and Joanna Marinia Gaeta. Who Decides? Teachers With Disabilities and the Role of School Administrators, Michelle L. Damiani. Experiences of Disability in One Canadian Faculty of Education: Recognition and Resourcing as a Social Justice Response to Supporting Students Living With Disabilities, Melissa Brideau and Pam Bishop. Climbing the Mountain: Power, Privilege, and Equity, Natalie Delgado, Ashley Greene, Gloshanda Lawyer, and Abdullah Alofi. Rolling My Way Into Leadership: Perspectives From an Educator With Cerebral Palsy, Sofia Vergara. Disabled Students in College-Going Cultures: Positing Frameworks for a “College-for-All” Culture, Robert Cooper and Brande M. Otis. SECTION V: ADVOCACY, LEVERAGE, AND THE PREPARATION OF SCHOOL LEADERS. Power and Partnerships: Families, Educators, and Implications for School Leaders, Christine L. Hancock. Engaging Sebastian: Advocating for the Inclusion of a High School English Language Learner Labeled With an Intellectual Disability, Sarah R. Semon. They Decide: Empowering Transition-Age Youth With Disabilities by Promoting Self-Determination, Andrew R. Scheef, Julia Mahfouz, and Mayumi Hagiwara. Journey of Self-Determination for a Woman With Epilepsy, Bridget Green. Leadership for Inclusive Education in Brazil: Potential Contribution of Disability Studies to the Training of School Leaders, Cynthia Paes de Carvalho, Flávia Pedrosa de Camargo, and Mônica de Carvalho Magalhães Kassar. Remembering What Matters Most: A Framework to Build Social Justice Leaders and Transform Schools Into Inclusive Spaces, Georgina E. Wilson and Regina R. Umpstead. Uncovering District and Campus Leaders’ Practices Around Special Education: Preparing Aspiring Leaders to Advocate for and Address the Needs of Special Education Students and Stakeholders, Irma L. Almager and Fernando Valle. SECTION VI: AFTERWORD. Afterword: Scratch a Theory and Find a Personal Story: Navigating Dis/Abilities at Home, School, and Work, Arnold B. Danzig, William R. Black, and Catherine O’Brien. About the Editors. About the Contributors.