Mapping socio-spatial constructions of normalcy: whiteness and ability in teacher candidates’ educational trajectories

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper I present a qualitative study in which I investigated how socio-spatial dimensions of schooling influenced the ways four, white, nondisabled teacher candidates made meaning of whiteness and ability throughout their educational journeys. Drawing on literature exploring the socio-spatial dimensions of power and whiteness and ability as property, I employed qualitative mapping to analyse how white, nondisabled teacher candidates appropriated conceptions of normalcy. Data reveal how whiteness and ability were constructed, normalised, and deployed as resources throughout teacher candidates’ P-12 schooling and teacher preparation programmes. I assert that such an analysis can inform teacher education programs in dismantling these intersecting ideologies.