Cultural work: Whitepower-normalcy and knowledge-power intersections in special education practice and scholarship

Abstract

<p>This dissertation interrogates three educational structures in a set of three manuscripts: (a) Technologies of Behavioral Intervention: Systematizing Control and Constructing Identities for BIPOC Students, (b) Parent Advocacy: Black Family Cultural Wealth and Special Education Structures, and (c) Ethics Review for Critical Special Education Research: Disqualified or Official Knowledge. Knowledge-power relationships and hidden ideologies of Whitepower-Normalcy within the cultural work of special education teachers and scholars are explicated. Understanding of the politics of knowledge and structural oppression within educational institutions informs critical praxis, transformational resistance, and a structural ideology. Connections to practice for special educators and scholars are made.</p>