Interrogating disability epistemologies: towards collective dis/ability intersectional emotional, affective and spiritual autoethnographies for healing

Abstract

Special education labeling ignores historical, emotional, spiritual, sociocultural effects of labeling Black and Brown students with disabilities. Utilizing critical disability studies, critical race theory and spiritual paradigm, we interrogate construction and expression of differences of Learning Disability and Speech and Language Impairment. We asked: How does being labeled with a special education disability category, as Black and Brown people impact emotional, affective, and spiritual development in and around schools? Reminded about our disability labels relationship to (re)production of racism and ableism, our counter-narratives deconstruct the normativity of racism and ableism in and around schools. Our findings illuminated how emotion, affect and spirituality played a role in our intersectional oppressions and non-normative construction of our differences. We call for collective emotional, affective and spiritual autoethnographies for change at the nexus of special education labeling and intersectionalities.