‘Children see before they speak’: an exploration of ableism in art education

Abstract

According to Robert McRuer ‘cripping entails radically re-visioning, from committed anti-ableist positions, the taken-for-granted systems in which we are located’. Importantly, this critique enables us to recognize sites of inequality in education and provides tools to create alternative ways of conceptualizing pedagogy. Informed by such theoretical approaches to disability studies, this paper offers a Critical-crip Discourse Analysis (CcDA) of images and text representing art, craft, and design education in England between 2005 and 2011. This analysis indicates that although art education is recognized as significant for all children, limited representations of disabled children and young people can result in their experiences becoming devalued. Descriptions of apparently inclusive educational practices naturalize, prioritize, and reinforce so-called able-bodied/mindedness and fail to capture the benefits of diversity to educative practices in art. This analysis of discourses about art education is therefore an essential step in re-imagining an equitable and sustainable art education with true relevance for all.