In teaching students critical histories of U.S. schooling, I often hear some iteration of, “at least things are getting better.” Whether conscious or not, many students enter the classroom with a shared narrative of human history as a linear and inevitable march toward social progress. As a teacher, my two primary goals are: 1. to foster an environment where students learn from one another how systems of oppression transmute over time and manifest today, so they recognize the reproduction of these systems in their daily lives, and 2. to underscore the collective power of marginalized peoples in occasioning social change, so they feel more equipped to take action toward social transformation. In accordance with principles of universal design for learning, I achieve these goals by creating multiple means of engaging, expressing, and representing content.
Drawing on their existing knowledge, I encourage students to reflect on and analyze their own lived experiences as a jumping-off point for developing critical analyses of systems of power that shape and are shaped by educational institutions, policies, and practices. In “The American School,” an introductory education course that offers a social and political history of U.S. schooling, students write analytical reflections applying educational theories, histories, and concepts discussed in class to situate their own K-12 schooling experiences within a broader social and political context. Building off critical analyses developed throughout the semester, the final assignment for the class asks students to complete a creative social action project that addresses a social justice issue on campus. Their final projects have included: a letter to the editor in the school newspaper highlighting issues of inaccessibility for disabled students of color on campus, an interactive art project installed in the campus library cafe encouraging passersby to reflect on unmet access needs across campus, and a campus “disorientation guide” analyzing campus issues like rape culture, worker exploitation, white supremacy, and academic inaccessibility. I understand the importance of cultivating hope while discussing often heavy course content, so throughout my classes I draw on social movement histories as well as my own organizing experiences to offer concrete examples demonstrating that people can and do win meaningful social changes through collective action.
Beyond supporting students in developing the theoretical foundation to analyze and discuss power relations, I integrate my research with my teaching to encourage students to see themselves as agents of change. Through class assignments and activities, I create opportunities to hone skills like creatively communicating complex ideas, engaging a broad audience, and writing concisely and compellingly. In my “Inclusive and Special Education” course in fall 2020, one option for the final group project was to analyze the university’s response to the pandemic in a creative format using disability justice and inclusive education frameworks. Demonstrating their ability to both critically analyze issues of accessibility in schooling and use their voices to amplify student concerns, one group created an Instagram account where the whole student body could anonymously submit success stories and experiences of inaccessibility with hybrid learning through the pandemic. The group of students then created an accessible virtual webinar summarizing the responses they received. They used the webinar to supplement an open letter to administration addressing the concerns raised and calling for changes to the university’s spring plan, with the aim of making learning through a pandemic as inclusive and accessible as possible.
My commitment to promoting equity and supporting underrepresented students extends to my practices outside of the classroom. The first semester that I taught “Critical and Feminist Disability Studies,” a disabled student of color had a mental health crisis mid-semester that made it difficult for her to continue showing up to class and participating in discussions. Because a commitment to accessibility was a clear and central component of my teaching, she reached out and asked to arrange regular meetings to review course readings and concepts on days that she wasn’t able to be in class. On a weekly basis, she came to my office and we talked through her insights and reflections on the weeks’ readings. Had my commitment to accommodating diverse learning needs not been made clear, she likely would not have reached out, and because her mental health often impeded in-class participation, I would not have known that she was not only keeping up, but had a deep and nuanced understanding of course themes and scholarly debates. Because I created an alternate avenue for her to participate, I was able to bring her questions and insights into the classroom for her classmates to learn from, too.
My most gratifying moments as a teacher come when students mention engaging with ideas from class outside of the classroom. I consider this one of the best barometers of teaching efficacy because it shows that students are using course concepts to both rethink previously held assumptions and to inform their actions in the social world. After the last day of my “American School” class, a student in the teacher preparation program emailed me regarding that day’s discussion about what it meant for teachers to be “neutral.” She told me the class left her thinking that “society has such a strong impact on schools” and that “[teacher activism] significantly impacts the school and classroom.” She explained that she previously believed that engaging in social activism would be at odds with her professional role as a teacher, but that reflection on our class conversation and further discussion with friends after class “opened [her] mind to what it actually means to be ‘neutral’ and how being active is challenging the status quo.” Through the discussion, she had come to see “neutrality” as a form of action that sustains oppressive systems we had studied throughout the semester. She left class wanting to engage in broader social struggles that impact schools and students and feeling more adept to broach social issues with her students that had previously seemed “too political.”
I understand the impulse to emphasize that “at least things are getting better” as symptomatic of a society that quells imagination about what sort of worlds are possible. While many students assume a linear progression of human history, they are nevertheless attuned to present-day injustices. As my own teachers did for me, I introduce multiple analytic frameworks to help make sense of a world fraught with injustice, and to underscore that nothing about this world is inevitable or immutable. My hope is that students leave my class continually questioning why things are the way they are, and desiring to work toward more just alternatives in ways that align with their own passions and commitments. My professional experiences have prepared me to teach courses on sociopolitical contexts of disability, anti-oppressive pedagogy, and instruction for learners with diverse disabilities and learning needs.
Laura J. Jaffee 