Highlighting the Intersectional experiences of Disabled Black and racially minoritized students

Intersectionality has been underutilised in inclusive education research.

In this blog I stress the importance of thinking with intersectionality when challenging ongoing inequalities and injustices experienced by Disabled people within the education system. In particular, how the intersections of ableism/disablism, racism and other intersectional oppressions play out in practice which further increases social injustice in other areas of society.  

The Timpson review (2019) reported that Black Disabled boys are 58% more likely to experience school exclusions when compared to white Disabled boys.  This is an example of why there is a need to better understand how we can improve our campaigning work so that we are working to advance all students rather than working from a singular issue, that results in further marginalisation of some communities within the Disabled people’s movement. There is enough evidence to show the failures experienced by Disabled people in the education system. However, the government continues not to follow up on their obligation to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to make inclusive education (on Article 24) a reality for all Disabled students in mainstream education systems. This includes removing structural and systematic barriers for example, inaccessibility of education teaching / teaching training, use of performance measure, inappropriate use of school accessibility plans that are used to push Disabled people out of mainstream education and upholding a system of segregation. These levels of segregation reinforce the lines of disparity between people within communities through increasing intersectional oppression which negatively impacts on Disabled people that are already living at the margins of society. This ultimately means that the barriers and inequalities experienced by Disabled Black and racially minoritised students are intensified by their interlocking experiences of racism and disablism. 

It is important to recognise that education is a basic human right. We must fight towards an educational framework of inclusion that is fundamentally rooted in an intersectional and social justice practice that embodies the participation of all people in the educational system. By not amplifying intersectional experiences that centre marginalised voices in our activism, Disabled people’s movements and other social justice movements, we call into question which communities are really being heard and which aren’t.  

Over the next 12 months, ALLFIE will be conducting a research project, funded by the Runnymede Trust, to help us to better understand the intersectional experiences of Disabled Black and racially minoritized children in mainstream schools. In an effort to ensure that ALLFIE’s campaign work is better informed by intersectionality so that no-one’s experiences are erased or marginalised.

For more information about the project, please contact: Kariima.ali@allfie.org.uk   

Kariima Ali, Social Value in Education Researcher