Tamara Handy - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tamara Handy

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

The authors report on a youth agency study conducted in post-conflict school settings in Sri Lank... more The authors report on a youth agency study conducted in post-conflict school settings in Sri Lanka. In a three-month field-based, qualitative research study, youth collaborated with the first author to explain and expand on their interviews. Their candor and concern for ensuring that the researcher understood the rationales behind their actions helped to reveal the agentic nature of their responses to situations at school. In doing so they helped the researcher understand how they mitigated their exposure to violent practices that were prevalent in their school settings. The findings point to the importance of recognizing and supporting youth agency as a crucial lever in advancing inclusive education

Emerald Publishing Limited eBooks, Dec 12, 2022

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2020

Context Girls of Color are overrepresented in school disciplinary actions based on subjectively j... more Context Girls of Color are overrepresented in school disciplinary actions based on subjectively judged, minor infractions. Studies have consistently shown that this exclusionary discipline has long-lasting impact on Girls of Color and their educational outcomes, including increased risk for pushout and involvement in the criminal legal system. Focus of Study We sought to uncover the processes that animate the statistics of overrepre-sentation of Girls of Color in disciplinary actions. Said differently, we sought to understand where, how, and why Girls of Color were being disciplined in schools. Using a Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) lens and centering the voices of Girls’ of Color, this empirical study was guided by the question, What mechanisms propel and dispel disciplinary inequities for Girls of Color? Research Design The qualitative research took place in a suburban school district in the Midwestern United States marked by increasing racial, cultural, and linguistic ...

Educational Researcher, 2020

Calls for justice-centered education approaches have gained traction over the years. Yet given th... more Calls for justice-centered education approaches have gained traction over the years. Yet given the entrenched inequities that disproportionately harm multiply-marginalized students of color, it is evident that they remain incomplete. Using a specific incident as our launching point, we explore current conceptualizations of justice through a disability critical race theory (DisCrit) contrapuntal reading of four prolific intellectuals whose work is often not in conversation: Nancy Fraser, Iris Marion Young, Mia Mingus, and Talila Lewis. We query, (a) How does the author conceptualize justice? (b) How does the author consider difference in relationships to justice? and (c) How does the author (re)imagine potential ways to remedy injustice? By recognizing connectedness and maintaining tensions framed within DisCrit, this article enumerates expansive conceptualizations of justice through centering multiply-marginalized communities of color.

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Context: Geographies of exclusion (e.g., segregated special education classrooms, school district... more Context: Geographies of exclusion (e.g., segregated special education classrooms, school district zoning) are constituted through intersecting oppressive ideologies (e.g., ableism, racism, classism) that co-naturalize notions of “normalcy” and deviance and yield harmful consequences for disabled children of Color. Geographies of exclusion dynamically contribute to and constitute teacher candidates’ feelings about themselves and their social worlds. White teacher candidates’ investment in dominant racial ideologies is well-documented, and recent scholarship has interrogated the role of white emotionality in these processes. However, the extent to which white teacher candidates emotionally ascribe to oppressive constructions of ability have been underexamined. Focus of Study: We sought to uncover how white teacher candidates (TCs) used emotional practices to position themselves in relation to ability within geographies of exclusion as they narrated their educational journeys. Such an ...

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2021

BMJ Open, 2022

IntroductionThe quality and the range of vocational training (VT) courses offered to youth with d... more IntroductionThe quality and the range of vocational training (VT) courses offered to youth with disabilities (YwD) in low-middle-income countries are underexplored. This protocol describes a study designed to gather perceptions of a range of stakeholders related to the quality and relevance of VT programmes conducted by the Department of Social Services in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study is to communicate with authorities the ways in which they can improve their services by paying close attention to the needs and recommendations of all stakeholders.Methods and analysisA parallel mixed-methods study will be conducted at eight vocational training institutes (VTIs). A survey will be conducted with five participant groups; YwD presently enrolled in VTIs (n=358) and their caregivers (n=358), YwD who completed the VT (n=45) and their caregivers (n=45) and educators at VTIs (n=47). The qualitative component includes semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The three gro...

This dissertation study aimed to understand factors that mediated teacher activities in waraffect... more This dissertation study aimed to understand factors that mediated teacher activities in waraffected school settings. Specifically, this study focused on examining ways in which inequitable, exclusionary processes were perpetuated, maintained, and legitimized in a waraffected school situated in the Northern part of Sri Lanka. This study was conceptualized using multiple critical theories that elucidated the ways in which inequities and exclusions worked in complex activity systems. This participatory design-based research study engaged teachers and students in critical reflection activities. This study found the ways in which disposability and disjunctures shaped teachers and students participation in school. In addition, this study illuminated the ways in which subjectivities were co-constructed in unequal fields of power. This study also mapped learning processes that took place in relation to critical reflections and explained the ways in which these emergent knowledges signaled t...

Theory Into Practice, 2017

Engaging teacher education as cultural work positions teacher educators and pre-service teachers ... more Engaging teacher education as cultural work positions teacher educators and pre-service teachers as cultural workers. Cultural workers foreground the cultural complexities of their situated experiences while aiming to produce cultures that transform prevailing inequalities and injustices in public education. Doctoral students are also cultural workers translating the world of academia and their role in it as they learn to educate teacher candidates. How doctoral candidates engage in this cultural work depends greatly on the degree to which their faculty mentors are able to reveal the contradictions and opportunities for expansive learning that co-exist within schools of education and individual departments such as curriculum and learning. This paper looks at this conundrum from the perspectives of a doctoral student and a senior faculty member.

Exceptionality, 2016

This study presents findings from a survey of secondary special education teachers who teach read... more This study presents findings from a survey of secondary special education teachers who teach reading. Respondents were 577 special education teachers from a large Midwestern state who completed an online or mail survey. Results based on quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate predominant foci of secondary special education teachers' reading instructional practices were teaching vocabulary and comprehension, engaging in ongoing formative assessment, and incorporating technology into instruction. Major themes included the widespread use of commercial reading programs and a bifurcation of instructional roles. These findings are discussed in relation to the national discourse on adolescent literacy and current schooling initiatives including the Common Core State Standards and Multi-tiered Systems of Support. Of critical national significance is the poor reading achievement of secondary students with disabilities. 63% of eighth grade students with disabilities and 63% of twelfth grade students with disabilities read below basic level according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). The high percentage of adolescents with disabilities who do not read at or above a basic level is concerning, because these students are at greater risk of academic, social, emotional, and economic difficulties (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 2008). These students are more likely to be retained, feel isolated from the larger school community, and ultimately drop out of school (Daniel et al., 2006; National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). Without adequate reading skills they will not be well positioned to secure jobs in a competitive market in which the fastest growing jobs require advanced literacy skills (Barton, 2000). Finally, they will be ill prepared to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities. Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (Wagner et al., 2005) indicated that only 39% of students with disabilities go on to 2-year or 4-year institutions. In response to this concerning situation, multiple policy documents have been drafted to provide recommendations for future research and practice in the area of adolescent literacy for students with and without disabilities. One of the first reports to establish a framework for research, policy, and practice in the area of adolescent literacy was Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004). The report provides 15 recommendations for instruction and infrastructure to improve adolescent literacy including (a) direct, explicit comprehension instruction; (b) instructional principles embedded in content; (c) motivation and self-directed learning; (d) text-based collaborative learning; (e) strategic tutoring; (f) diverse texts; (g) intensive writing; (h) use of technology; (i) ongoing formative assessment; (j) extended time for literacy; (k) professional development; (l) ongoing summative assessment; (m) teacher teams; (n) leadership knowledgeable about reading instruction; and (o) comprehensive and coordinated literacy

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Nov 23, 2021

Curriculum Inquiry, 2019

Classroom and behaviour management are often touted as ways to build relationships in the classro... more Classroom and behaviour management are often touted as ways to build relationships in the classroom. Yet conceptions of classroom and behaviour management often focus on controlling or eradicating student behaviour; these carceral logics limit the ways educators can build classroom relationships focused on love and respect. Moreover, classroom and behaviour management are often rooted in punitive, top-down approaches wherein practices are dictated to teachers and classroom contexts and the students within are ignored. To disrupt these carceral and technocratic logics imbued within classroom and behaviour management, we argue that integrating disability studies exceeds constraining and quarantining boundaries of curriculum, shifting to meta-curriculum. Using Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), we explicitly conceptualize relationships built in the classroom as a necessary part of critical curriculum studies. We then apply Disability Justice principles to curriculum studies to produce DisCrit Solidarity. Finally, we explore the four convictions of DisCrit Solidarity which can reorganize pedagogic spaces for liberation. This intersectional approach to relationships in the classroom rejects managing behaviours, requires purposeful articulation and highlights resistance by educators and students, resulting in transformative praxis.