Urban Narratives: Portraits in Progress, Life at the Intersections of Learning Disability, Race, and Social Class

Urban Narratives foregrounds previously silenced voices of young people of color who are labeled disabled. Overrepresented in special education classes, yet underrepresented in educational research, these students – the largest group within segregated special education classes – share their perceptions of the world and their place within it. Eight ‘portraits in progress’ consisting of their own words and framed by their poetry and drawings, reveal compelling insights about life inside and out of the American urban education system. The book uses an intersectional analysis to examine how power circulates in society throughout and among historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal domains, impacting social, academic, and economic opportunities for individuals, and expanding or circumscribing their worlds.