Challenges to goals of “Recovery”: A narrative analysis of neoliberal/ableist policy effects on two mothers of young children with autism

Abstract

This narrative inquiry shows the barriers and possibilities that the current US education context poses for two mothers of pre-kindergarten sons with autism. Specifically, this work is contextualized within the growing universal pre-kindergarten reform which provides a mixed delivery (public and private) implementation. Presented with the context of choice among school sites and the expectation of mothers to provide energy for the reform through their involvement in the universal pre-kindergarten “machine,” mothers of children with autism experienced unique challenges. An in-depth Bakhtinian analysis examining the mothers’ uses of heteroglossia and polyphony shows the complexities of how they presented an oscillating “double-consciousness,” working between machine expectations and narratives of “recovery,” meaning desiring normalization in line with the expectations of early childhood experts, children, and local policies. Neither the machine metaphor nor the narrative of recovery was sufficient to negotiate the challenges of education for the families, and mothers used strategies of recycling, resisting, and re-appropriating discourses to navigate. While universal pre-kindergarten was effective in improving the academic performance of children with mild autism, it did not always support the goals of inclusive and democratic education. Therefore, mothers began to question their choice of public school context and began to consider private universal pre-kindergarten sites, even though this might jeopardize the Individualized Education Plans that they worried their children needed, particularly for social purposes. The implications address both the mechanism for shifts from public to private choice in the current US education context, and the need for a reparative project that critically addresses relationships between homes and schools.