Beyond Survival

Reflections on Anti-Ableist Mentorship in Special Education Teacher Education

Abstract

Disabled doctoral students and faculty members’ experiences with disability and ableism uniquely and intimately shape their work within special education and teacher education. Yet, traditional mentoring and collaboration structures for doctoral students too often ignore this reality, instead creating support systems that explicitly and implicitly privilege nondisabled and neurotypical ways of being. This is particularly prevalent within special education, where special educators and students are statically positioned: educators are presumed to be nondisabled experts, while students are pathologized and perceived as in need of said expertise. In this article, we share insights from our lived experiences as special education faculty engaging in mentorship that was organically developed and informed by the ways we saw ourselves and each other while navigating and challenging traditional norms, expectations, and structures of higher education. Situated within the broader literature on mentoring, ableism in special education, and higher education, we share three characteristics of mentorship that have the potential to strengthen and sustain a more diverse special education faculty workforce.