Ithaca College

Sherry L. Deckman, Ed.D. (Lehman College, CUNY; lead author), Ellie Fitts Fulmer, Ed.D., associate professor of education at IC, together with alumnae Keely Kirby (‘15) and Katharine Hoover (‘15), and Abena Subira Mackall, Ed.D. (University of Texas at Austin) coauthored a study examining representation of dis/ability in elementary and middle school health textbooks.

This research explores how elementary and middle school health textbooks from two prominent publishers in the USA portray dis/ability through quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods of 1,468 images across texts. This study is part of the group’s larger research project about race, ability, gender, and sexuality norms depicted in health texts.

Findings from this piece indicate that the majority of the images showing dis/ability feature assimilationist ideas, such as, presuming an audience of normatively-abled readers (by pointing out those with dis/abilities as different from the reader), and individuals with dis/abilities are marked as “successful” and positioned as “overcoming their limitations.” These types of portrayals reinforce dominant, ableist views. The authors call on educators and students to critically consider the ways in which people are positioned in the materials they use, and ask if the portrayals perpetuate or challenge stereotypes.

The article, titled, “(Un)affirming assimilation: Depictions of dis/ability in health textbooks,” was published in November in the Journal for Multicultural Education.

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-04-2020-0037

This research was supported, in part, during 2014 and 2015 with funding from the Education Department at Ithaca College, the H&S student travel fund, and the Women’s & Gender Studies Kalinowski Grant for Kirby’s and Hoover’s presentation of this research at a national conference.