Our Publications
Here you’ll find publications written by TCICP co-directors, staff, and collaborators. We invite you to explore our curriculum resources, articles about our development and enactment of inquiry-to-action teams, and scholarly papers on the principles that inform our stance and work on critical inclusivity.
Featured Publication
TCICP’s Favorite Books Featuring Characters with Disabilities
As people who work in inclusive education, we love to read and teach books that portray children and youth with disabilities with fullness, nuance, and authenticity. Over the years, we’ve read a lot of books featuring young people with disabilities and swapped recommendations with children and teachers in the many classrooms in which we work. We compiled this list of the YA and children’s literature we like that feature young people with disabilities. Consider it our snapshot of books families and educators with a stake in inclusivity might want to know about.
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Publications:
Full citizenship requires curricular change
The Sophist’s Bane, 4(1), 81-87.
In this essay, TCICP co-director Celia Oyler draws upon autobiographical, historical, and scholarly sources to explore notions of citizenship, inclusion and exclusion, and curricular change. The article describes the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the desegregation of public schools. Although African Americans were integrated into schools, Oyler observes, little changed in the K-12 curriculum. Additionally, Oyler delves into the segregation of students with disabilities into special education, arguing that educators must “create schools where everyone is a full citizen” (p. 87).
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Preparing teachers of young children to be social justice-oriented educators
In B. S. Fennimore & A. L. Goodwin (Eds.), Promoting social justice for young children (pp. 147-161). London, U.K. & New York, NY: Springer.
In this article, TCICP’s co-director, Celia Oyler, provides an overview and description of key attributes of social justice-oriented teacher education. The article outlines pedagogical approaches which aim to prepare prospective teachers to critically self-reflect, carefully assess individual children’s learning needs, and work with special education partners to collaboratively plan multilevel and accessible curriculum. Oyler concludes with some research findings and a theoretical framework for understanding social justice-oriented teacher education.
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Leadership for rich learning in high-poverty schools
Journal of Special Education Leadership, 25(1), 18-27.
In this article, TCICP’s co-director, Celia Oyler, and Christina Fuentes, a principal at P.S. 24 in Brooklyn, argue it is essential to support school administrators to be instructional leaders in creating rich learning opportunities for all students. Using the case of a school in Brooklyn, the authors highlight structural inequalities, educational policies, and district practices that have created dilemmas for instructional leaders responsible for students with complex learning profiles. The article highlights specific strategies designed to (a) nurture a commitment to advocacy within an audit and accountability culture; (b) provide curriculum leadership for complex instruction through three-dimensional learning; (c) help reshape everyday professional practices by moving toward collaborative consultation; and (d) support curriculum for social-emotional learning.
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Inquiry-based teacher learning for inclusivity: Professional development for action and change
Learning Landscapes, 8(2), 39-47.
University-school partnerships can offer teachers a space for inquiry into theory-based practice related to teaching for equity, inclusivity, and justice. In this article, read about our Inquiry-to-Action teams, during which city teachers collectively interrogate students’ access to full participation in schools. Teachers are enthusiastic about this work and eagerly share their wisdom and carefully document their year-long journeys into creating greater access and participation for students. Sarah Schlessinger and Celia Oyler assert that inquiry teams function as an alternate space for educators to share their work, ponder their pedagogical beliefs, and analyze power relationships in their classrooms and schools. As participants are validated in their work in this alternate space, they are able to build agency as intellectuals and act inclusively and for social justice within their own school spaces.
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Democratic classrooms and accessible instruction
Democracy and Education, 14(1), 28-31.
There is a large body of literature that offers advice regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education settings. However, few links are made between this literature and the work on democratic schooling practices. Yet such practices often overlap and certainly can be thought of as mutually supportive. In this article, Celia Oyler, TCICP’s co-director, outlines essential tenets of accessible instruction, gives real classroom examples, and, ultimately, makes the link between accessible instruction and education for democracy.
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Schooling children with down syndrome: Toward an understanding of possibility
Encounter: Education for meaning and social justice, 14(1), 3-6.
Celia Oyler reviews Chris Kliewer’s book, Schooling Children with Down Syndrome: Toward an Understanding of Possibility. Oyler asserts the book is a powerful call to begin to ask questions about citizenship, democracy, capacity, and community values, not only for people with Down Syndrome but for all of us. In this elegantly written and persuasively argued volume, Christopher Kliewer fully articulates an alternative version of schooling and community citizenship and offers a scathing indictment of our dual system of education. As a professor of education and a former special education teacher, Kliewer steps quite bravely forward to render a careful, but pointed argument against the very existence of special education. Further, and even more provocatively, the author forces us to reconsider our notions of human capacity.
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