- Narrator: Have you ever talked about
what a student of yours can't do in the classroom?
"They can't read that paragraph.
"They can't do that homework.
They can't do the group activity."
This focus on what students can't do is deficit mindset,
and it's a key element to understanding ableism.
[clicking sound]
- Jeremy Ault: Simply, ableism is when there's an inherent bias
against people with a disability.
And that takes many forms that we all have internalized.
As a special education teacher,
like, I often think about the ways in which
I have been ableist in the day.
And that's true.
'Cause I think like, as an educator,
especially a special education teacher,
like, you have to be self-reflective all the time
about how you're projecting in space.
- Narrator: Ableism assumes that typical abilities are superior,
and that people with a disability need fixing.
A lot of these biases can be directed
toward physical disabilities,
but also mental disabilities, learning disabilities,
or even something like a language barrier.
- It's really easy in school to like, segregate students
based on ability levels even if you're trying not to, right?
So like when you're talking about inclusive classrooms,
it's like, well, what does inclusion look like?
It's not enough just to have students with disabilities
sitting in your classroom.
How are we as teachers, both sp-ed, gen ed, teachers,
and schools, like really actively helping those students
to engage socially and with the material?
There's like, all kinds of cool things you can do,
but it's not enough just to put them in there
and then to give them a small group in the back of the room.
That's not enough.
- Narrator: Socially engaging education
is something Jeremy is doing
to give students some agency over their learning,
allowing the students to understand
how they can contribute to a given lesson with one another.
- Jeremy: So like, some of the students
with intellectual disabilities were being over-helped.
So they weren't really learning the skills
that they needed to learn for independence.
We really have to get them to see themselves as equals
and to have everybody else see them as like co-equal partners.
So one of the things we did
is we approached a couple of the students,
one in particular with Down syndrome,
and asked him to lead what we call community circle,
where he would work and discuss with all the other students
around the ideas of disability.
But also more importantly,
it was focused on like, the idea of weakness and strengths.
So we worked with him for a little bit
to get the presentation going,
but really he talked about what it meant for him
to have Down syndrome.
You know, he's taking over the defining moment
about his disability.
He's you know, he's prideful about it and sharing about it.
And then more importantly, he's talking about what he feels
he has strengths in and where he needs help
and how they can help him.
And then this is where it flips.
Then he led a discussion with all the other students
where they had to answer to each other about, well,
where are their strengths?
Where are their weaknesses?
Where can they be helped?
Where can they be supported?
And so it was a really awesome moment
where like, all these other students
who were trying to figure out how to help him
realized really quickly that like,
"Oh, he can tell us what he needs
"and oh, and by the way,
"something that he might be really good at
is something that I struggle with."
- Narrator: Remember that deficit mindset?
By looking at strengths and using asset-based language,
students can find ways to engage,
rather than simply identifying ways they cannot.
This new way of thinking
allows one to also see ability on a spectrum,
rather than in absolutes.
We all have neurological profiles.
We all learn differently.
We all have strengths and weaknesses,
and everybody brings value to that space
and can help each other out.
And I think like, what's really cool
about those types of moments is that students really begin
to understand the action of inclusion,
which is like, this is an act.
We actively talk and interact with each other.
We actively see the value and strengths
of people with disabilities.
And we view them as co-equals in our democracy.
And I think that's what inclusive education
ultimately is about.
We want all people, all students to understand
that our diversity is a value and an asset,
and it's gonna help us create a more equitable democracy.
- Narrator: Creating an inclusive mindset
will allow for a learning environment
where students of all abilities can participate.
It's simply up to the teacher to communicate
and model what that participation will look like.
- You can say, "Look, everybody, Azul's gonna come up today
"and she's gonna share with us something
"that she worked on over the weekend," right?
Azul might not be able to communicate in the typical way,
but Azul can be present and in that space,
and you can show them things that they like to do
within the space that they're good at.
Sometimes it might be drawing.
Sometimes it might be like, I don't know, like dancing.
I'm not gonna define the student by what they can't do.
I'm gonna define the student by what their uniqueness is,
what their unique talents are,
what are the different neurological ways
in which the student learns that can enrich my own classroom.
- Narrator: Demonstrating to your students
these differences in ability can go a long way
to removing the biases that make up an ableistic classroom.
- If we tried to, as teachers,
like reframe the idea of special education
or having a disability as being shameful, but as normal,
and also part of being humans
and in many ways, like makes you super cool and really unique.
I think like, that would help too
with just like, students when they get older,
being able to actively advocate
and feel confident advocating for themselves.
And I think like, that starts early on
with like gen ed and sp-ed teachers
talking about what they're seeing
and like, really supporting students
and helping students advocate for themselves.
- Narrator: What are some changes you could make
to eliminate ableism in your classroom?
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