Taking the "Dis" out of "Disability": How a School's Community of Teachers Works to Empower Students with Disabilities in an Ableist Education System

In this paper I investigate the perceptions and lived experiences of four teachers and one administrator working at a secondary school in Canada in which all of the students have been institutionally designated with a " disability." Data was collected for this qualitative study through five semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. As I deconstructed and analyzed the lived experiences of the participants I paid particular attention to their perceptions of what makes this school distinctive; how they as educators develop a sense of community and collegiality in their individual classrooms and the broader school; the issues or challenges they encounter supporting the learning and life chances of students; and the curricular and pedagogical choices they make to ensure their students are challenged and successful. Findings of this study reveal that this school and its community of teachers are a source of insight into the mindset and resulting approach to teaching that educators need to adopt in order to empower students with disabilities with the skills and attitudes necessary to succeed in our ableist society, a society that privileges what has been deemed to be 'normal.' The participants' efforts to empower their students illustrate the challenges educators face in eliminating ableism due to disabling language and an educational system constructed through an ideology of deficit. However, the participants also provide a peak, a flavour, an essence of what is possible when we educate to unconver the potential in our students