The Educational Abandonment of Black Disabled Youth and the Funds of Resistance that Sustain Them: A Family Ecological Analysis

Supporting youth with disabilities in the transition to adulthood is a federally mandated process that involves a network of interrelated supports and services. Research and practice has identified indicators of high quality transition education, including student-centered planning and family engagement. Too often, however, Black young adults labeled with disabilities and their families are excluded from transition resources and supports that lead to desired outcomes. In this dissertation, I explored how Black disabled young adults labeled with intellectual disability, and their families, experienced schooling in general and transition planning specifically, through qualitative analysis and a theoretical combination of Disability Critical Race Theory, Socio-Spatial Dialectic, and Funds of Knowledge. Prior research afforded understandings of how Families of Color faced marginalization in transition planning with schools, yet there was still little known about the experiences of Black disabled young adults labeled with intellectual disability and their families. Therefore, this study addressed the lack of literature prioritizing the voices of Black disabled young adults labeled with intellectual disability, and their families, as knowledge generators. Using a combination of interviews and Education Journey Mapping, I collaborated with three of my former students, Kiara, Deshaun, and Savannah—now young adults—and their families, to learn about their schooling trajectories, affordances, and constraints from the time they were placed in my substantially separate special education kindergarten classroom. Thus, this project involved critical researcher reflexivity regarding my role in reinforcing exclusionary schooling for Black disabled youth. A multiple case study design allowed for robust analysis within and across cases to account for the nuanced and intersectional experiences across the three distinct family cases. Findings indicated a theme of organized disinvestment in the education and futures of Black disabled students. This occurred through a denial of curricular and instructional support, organized manipulation of educational placement, a lack of pre-employment transition opportunities for self-determination, and a lack of holistic support for Black families with children with extensive support needs. Nevertheless, Black disabled young adults and their families drew from funds of identity and knowledge to resist their deficit positioning and make space for joy, relationships, and community. Within this theme, participants enacted historicity to locate themselves in political moments and spaces, leveraging support and advocacy for themselves and their families. Findings from this study indicate that transition planning is impacted across spatial and temporal dimensions, both of which are permeated with anti-Black messages about student capacity and possible futures. The field of transition can learn from these findings to re-imagine Black disabled futures and transform supports and services in ways that disrupt inequitable outcomes across the lifespan. This can be done through continual efforts to prioritize Black disabled young adults and their families as knowledge generators and experts in the education of their youth, building trusted and inclusive community supports, and disrupting intersecting forms of systemic oppression.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Wilt, Courtney Lane

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Annamma, Subini A.
• Kurth, Jennifer A.

• Special education
• disability
• racism
• transition

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17799

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39149