Deconstructing Dispositions: Toward a Critical Ability Theory in Teacher Education

Abstract

When attending to dispositions, or educators’ assumptions and beliefs about teaching, learning, and students, teacher educators must develop a discourse that examines disability in terms of power and privilege. This article synthesizes literature related to critical race theory (CRT) and disability theory to elucidate the need for a critical ability theory in teacher education. Combining the tenets of CRT and disability theories provides a lens for viewing how power and privilege affect public and private conceptions of what it means to have a special need. Because recognition of privilege and identity serve as the cornerstones of dispositional development, prospective teachers should be asked to examine their dispositions through this lens. This article offers a novel way to explore the dispositions construct, as previous literature has not examined the ways that privilege and identity intersect with disability and teacher dispositions.