Dr. Gillian Parekh unpacks the realities of how ability and disability play out within schooling, including insights from students, teachers, and administrators about the barriers faced by students on the basis of ability. Parekh shows how ableism is inextricably linked to other forms of bias.

Gillian Parekh is an educator, assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Inclusion, Disability and Education within the Faculty of Education, York University. As a previous teacher in special education and research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Gillian has conducted extensive system and school-based research in Toronto in the areas of structural equity, special education, and academic streaming. In particular, her work explores how schools construct and respond to disability as well as how students are organized across programs and systems. She resides in Ontario with her family.

Part I: Thinking Through Ability, Disability, and Ableism

1 Making Disability a Different Kind of Issue in Schools: Disability Studies in Education

2 How Ability is Constructed and Organized in Schools

3 Detangling the Relationship Between Race, Class, and Perceived Ability

Part II: How Students Are Organized by Ability

4 Special Education Program, Identification, and Placement

5 Academic Streaming and Hierarchies of Ability

6 Implicating Gifted and Talented Education

Part III: Practical Strategies for the School and Classroom

7 Critical Approaches to Inclusion

8 Inclusive Pedagogy and Practice

Conclusion: Moving Forward and Setting New Conditions for Justice