Unmuting the voices of Black male students with dis/abilities: Rewriting the narrative
Bradford Humphrey, Karla
Citations
Abstract
Black male students with dis/abilities represent one of the most academically subjugated groups in U.S. schools. Histories of special education, racial disproportionality, and the denial of education and access contribute to the systemic oppression and discrimination they experience, particularly in urban schools. Black male students with dis/abilities also account for a large percentage of students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Irwin et al., 2024) and are retained in 9th grade at higher rates than their white counterparts (Ladson-Billings, 2022; Tatum & Muhammad, 2012). Disproportionate referral to and placement in special education shape these retention patterns. Guided by radical critical schooling theory (RCST), this narrative inquiry study examined how Black male students with dis/abilities author, narrate, and perceive their lived experiences with special education learning supports in high school English Language Arts (ELA) inclusion classrooms. By centering the stories of three Black male students with dis/abilities, this study illuminated how they recount their schooling experiences and the kinds of instructional practices they encounter. I analyzed their narratives to identify characteristics of culturally responsive teaching within their inclusion classrooms and school. Data sources included four semi-structured interviews with each student, student artifacts, and researcher field notes and analytic memos. Narrative analysis followed an iterative inductive-deductive process to identify patterns, themes, and narrative threads across their stories. Findings present rich, layered narratives of Black male students receiving special education support in their public school, foregrounding their perspectives to surface marginalized experiences and disrupt structures of silence, invisibility, and deficit-based narratives historically imposed on Black male students. I identified three central themes: (a) deficit-narrative counterstorytelling, (b) unfamiliarity with and lack of participation in Individual Education Program (IEP) meetings, and (c) an anti-Black curricular focus. The study calls for inclusive teaching practices that honor Black male students’ voices, confront intersecting systems of oppression, and create conditions for healing, affirming, and thriving.
