Taming the Duality of Disability: Critical Cultural-Historical Tools to Disrupt Equity Paradoxes

Mitigar la dualidad de la discapacidad. Herramientas histórico-culturales críticas para desestabilizar paradojas de equidad

Alfredo J. Artiles, Stanford UniversityFollow

DOI

10.22550/2174-0909.4241

Abstract

I build the core argument of this article on the premise that disability has a dual nature: it affords protections to people with disabilities while it can also be used as an artifact of marginalization; thus, creating justice paradoxes. For instance, disability’s potential to oppress tends to target already marginalized groups, such as racialized people and students from nondominant linguistic, socioeconomic or ethnic backgrounds. Thus, a concept available to safeguard vulnerable groups (i.e., disability) can be deployed to segregate or deny educational opportunities. The purpose of this article is to offer theoretical tools to dissect disability’s potential for harm and inspire alternatives to address equity paradoxes that may emerge from this phenomenon. I focus on racial disparities in disability identification as a case in point to contextualize the presentation of theoretical tools. First, I contextualize my analysis with an overview of racial disparities in disability identification. Next, I outline three theoretical tools to advance a critical cultural-historical framework: (1) trace the fluidity of disability, (2) expose the color of knowledge and its implications, and (3) make visible the role of ideologies through a DefectCraft lens. I close with reflections for the next generation of scholarship.

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Author Biography

Alfredo J. Artiles. He is the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education and Director of the Research Institute at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity at Stanford University. His scholarship examines equity paradoxes created by educational policies. Dr. Artiles studies how protections afforded by disability status can unwittingly stratify educational opportunities for minoritized groups and is advancing responses to these inequities. He is the editor of the book series Disability, Culture, & Equity (Teachers College Press).

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5772-0787

Citación recomendada | Recommended citation

Artiles, A. J. (2025). Taming the duality of disability. Critical cultural-historical tools to disrupt equity paradoxes [Mitigar la dualidad de la discapacidad. Herramientas histórico-culturales críticas para desestabilizar paradojas de equidad]. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 83(290). https://doi.org/10.22550/2174-0909.4241