Overview

This book chronicles the professional life of a career-long, inclusive educator in New York City through eight different stages in special and general education. Developing a new approach to research as part of qualitative methodology, David J. Connor merges the academic genre of autoethnography with memoir to create a narrative that engages the reader through stories of personal experiences within the professional world that politicized him as an educator. After each chapter’s narrative, a systematic analytic commentary follows that focuses on: teaching and learning in schools and universities; the influence of educational laws; specific models of disability and how influence educators and educational researchers; and educational structures and systems—including their impact on social, political, and cultural experiences of people with disabilities. This autoethnographic memoir documents, over three decades, the relationship between special and general education, the growth of the inclusion movement, and the challenge of special education as a discrete academic field. As part of a national group of critical special educators, Connor describes the growth of counter-theory through the inception and subsequent growth of DSE as a viable academic field, and the importance of rethinking human differences in new ways.

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9781498568234

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Reviews

For those interested in pondering how the individual development of an educator can parallel the evolution of a field, David Connor's book will not disappoint as it vividly portrays the complexities of an innovative educator's life, demonstrating how the professional and personal are inextricably tied. . . One of the greatest strengths of Contemplating Dis/Ability in Schools and Society is the way in which Connor weaves together the history of the field with the story of his evolution as a lifelong educator. Education is a human endeavor, and to understand how trends evolve is to understand how they rest within the individual educators and scholars who collectively constitute the field. Thus, the reader walks away feeling not only that they know the author more intimately but that they understand in greater depth the course which the field of education (including special education and disability studies) has taken. Connor's writing in Contemplating Dis/Ability in Schools and Society is warm and inviting. . . . In short, I find this book to be as innovative as its author, offering a unique and personal account of an often clinically-oriented field. * Teachers College Record * The story of educator David Connor is also, as it turns out, the story of the unfolding relationship between special education and disability studies in the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. With clarity and humor, as well as love and gratitude for his students and colleagues over the years, Connor weaves his memoir with honesty, compassion, and a keen intelligence. Contemplating Dis/ability in Schools and Society will be treasured by teachers, professors, and others committed to making public education more humane and just for all students, their teachers, and society more broadly. -- Sonia Nieto, University of Massachusetts In this autoethnographic memoir, David Connor intimately reflects on thirty years as a (special) educator. Organizing the memoir around his career trajectory, Connor compellingly narrates a series of personal and professional experiences beginning with his life as a new teacher, and later as a doctoral student, college professor, and finally, department chairperson. Throughout the book, Connor acknowledges the tensions and conflicted feelings that are shared by many of us whose scholarly work is situated in Disability Studies in Education (DSE) but whose faculty and teaching responsibilities reside in special education programs. David Connor is a prolific writer and compelling scholar whose contributions to education, and DSE in particular, are significant due to the breadth of topics studied and the depth of scrutiny and analysis applied to each project. -- Susan L. Gabel, Wayne State University

For those interested in pondering how the individual development of an educator can parallel the evolution of a field, David Connor's book will not disappoint as it vividly portrays the complexities of an innovative educator's life, demonstrating how the professional and personal are inextricably tied. . . One of the greatest strengths of Contemplating Dis/Ability in Schools and Society is the way in which Connor weaves together the history of the field with the story of his evolution as a lifelong educator. Education is a human endeavor, and to understand how trends evolve is to understand how they rest within the individual educators and scholars who collectively constitute the field. Thus, the reader walks away feeling not only that they know the author more intimately but that they understand in greater depth the course which the field of education (including special education and disability studies) has taken. Connor's writing in Contemplating Dis/Ability in Schools and Society is warm and inviting. . . . In short, I find this book to be as innovative as its author, offering a unique and personal account of an often clinically-oriented field.--Teachers College Record In this autoethnographic memoir, David Connor intimately reflects on thirty years as a (special) educator. Organizing the memoir around his career trajectory, Connor compellingly narrates a series of personal and professional experiences beginning with his life as a new teacher, and later as a doctoral student, college professor, and finally, department chairperson. Throughout the book, Connor acknowledges the tensions and conflicted feelings that are shared by many of us whose scholarly work is situated in Disability Studies in Education (DSE) but whose faculty and teaching responsibilities reside in special education programs. David Connor is a prolific writer and compelling scholar whose contributions to education, and DSE in particular, are significant due to the breadth of topics studied and the depth of scrutiny and analysis applied to each project.--Susan L. Gabel, Wayne State University The story of educator David Connor is also, as it turns out, the story of the unfolding relationship between special education and disability studies in the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. With clarity and humor, as well as love and gratitude for his students and colleagues over the years, Connor weaves his memoir with honesty, compassion, and a keen intelligence. Contemplating Dis/ability in Schools and Society will be treasured by teachers, professors, and others committed to making public education more humane and just for all students, their teachers, and society more broadly.--Sonia Nieto, University of Massachusetts

Author Information

David J. Connor is professor of special education/learning disabilities at Hunter College

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