Extending DisCrit: a case of universal design for learning and equity in a rural teacher residency

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Rural Teacher Residency (RTR) program prepares teachers to work in ‘high need’ rural schools in the northeastern United States, and specifically works to establish a counter-narrative to the commonly-held deficit lens applied to these schools and communities. Framed by theory and research on DisCrit and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), we share our experiences as rural teacher educators using UDL to help preservice teachers disrupt assumptions about rurality, socioeconomics, race, ability, gender identity, and privilege. We explain how our gradual incorporation of the tenets of DisCrit improved our ability to support pre-service teachers’ examination of structural inequities in school practices, including but not limited to norms of race, ability, and rurality. We conclude by offering our ongoing planning in RTR as a model for how teacher educators interested in working with DisCrit can expand its use as a transformative and liberatory framework that includes, but also extends beyond race and ability.