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Political, relational, and complexly embodied; experiencing disability in the mathematics classroom

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Abstract

The academic field of Disability Studies (DS) offers theoretical tools to understand how social practices intersect with embodiment, long a critical issue in DS because disability is a category of human difference that is always already embodied. I review two theories that seek to resolve this dichotomy between the body and social worlds: complex embodiment (Siebers, Disability theory, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2008) and the political/relational model (Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2013). I use these theories to analyze ethnographic data and narratives of a Latina named Desi around disability and mathematics. Desi’s narratives explored experiences relating to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Learning Disabilities, and mathematics anxiety. Desi’s narratives described disabilities as socio-political constructs, involving relations of power and exclusion, as well as acknowledging the physiological, embodied experience of some differences in relation to mathematics. Through this analysis, I argue for the inclusion of emotion in embodiment, and the use of narrative analysis paired with ethnography as a tool to understand embodied experience.

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Notes

  1. While person-first language is preferred in the US, I alternate between person-first and identity-first language as some disabled activists prefer identity-first language to communicate disability as a valued identity (ASAN 2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gervitz Graduate School of Education, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA

    Rachel Lambert

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  1. Rachel Lambert
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Correspondence to Rachel Lambert.

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Lambert, R. Political, relational, and complexly embodied; experiencing disability in the mathematics classroom. ZDM Mathematics Education 51, 279–289 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-019-01031-1

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