“Empowering Learner Voice through DisCrit Pedagogy and UDL” is the CAST UDL Symposium session I watched tonight with Reagan Mergen, an ASPIRE Doctoral Student, Kia Felder Williams, and Joy Banks, Associate Professor at George Mason University. Mergen spoke about the goal of using UDL to proactively meet student needs. Banks explained that UDL doesn’t talk explicitly about race and asked: How do the principles of UDL account for differences related to students who experience multiple marginalized identities? Banks spoke about the work of Bell in 1987 and how laws can separate. Banks explained how disability critical race theory (DisCrit) came from the merging of ideas from Bell, Gables, and Annamma, for example. The goal was the examination of laws and policies and how they influence those with multiple marginalized identities. They shared this quote:
Troubling notions of race and ability and examining intersectional identitties within educational policy and practice are primary goals of DisCrit.
Dr. Joy Banks citing Annamma et al. 2013, Annamma & Morrison 2018 during CAST UDL Symposium 2022
To disrupt notions of ableism, racism, and representation, equity-minded UDL is needed, mentioned Banks. The presenters shared a tool they developed based on the work of Annamma and others. The session paused for breakout rooms and case study discussions. The case study debriefs included discussions about barriers in how teachers see children (in K-12) when it comes. to disability and color. Another question that came up was how. to represent all students in the learning process so that everyone has a chance to “see themselves.” An audience member spoke eloquently about special ed teachers are good teachers using UDL approaches. The takeaways the presenters shared were:
- UDL: engagement representation, action, and expression.
- DisCrit: exposes ableism and racism, privileges the voice of historically marginalized people
One presenter shared. in the chat that we need to expand our consideration of learner variability to include ability, neurodiversity, and different identities. Mergen summarized that we need to think about the experiences that are disadvantaging students with multiple marginalized identities and remove those barriers for all learners.
