Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / There is a dearth of literature about post-secondary transition experiences of
Black women with dis/abilities (BWD). In this qualitative study, I explore transition
experiences of five post-secondary BWD from high school to college in order to privilege
her chronicles and narratives as knowledge. In addition, two urban public high school
transition coordinators (TC) participated in the study. Three inquiries guided my
dissertation: (1) features of educational experiences narrated by BWD, (2) features of
transition services provided to students with dis/abilities, including roles of and
approaches as described by the TCs, and (3) how BWD narratives may be leveraged to
critique and extend transition services as the TCs described them. I engaged in three
semi-structured interviews with six of the seven participants (one interview with the
seventh). I drew from Disability Studies/Disability Studies in Education (DSE), Critical
Race Theory, and Womanist/Black Feminist Theory and their shared tenets of voice and
counternarratives and concepts of social construction and falsification of consciousness to
analyze the narratives of BWD participants. I drew from the DS/DSE tenet
of interlocking systems of oppression, DisCrit tenet three, race and ability, and constructs
of Inputs and Outcomes in work on Modeling Transition Education to analyze the TCs’
narratives and in connection to the narratives of the BWD. Across both sets of
participants, three themes in the form of Truths emerged; they were terrible and sticky
experiences of racial/dis/ability oppression for the BWDs and, imposing of whiteness and
normalization within the transition education practices described by the TCs. For the BWD, those terrible and sticky truths took three forms: (a) Pathologization;
(b) Disablement; and (c) Exclusion. Another type of truth in the BWD’s narratives,
however, was Subverted Truths: (re)defined identities and radical love, (re)placed
competence and knowledge, and (revalued sisterhood and community, the ways of
pushing back and resisting the Truths and their effects. I discuss implications for BWD
post-secondary transition-planning-and-programming theory, research, policy, practice,
praxis, and spirituality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:IUPUI/oai:scholarworks.iupui.edu:1805/18595 |
| Date | 02 1900 |
| Creators | Cannon, Mercedes Adell |
| Contributors | Thorius, Kathleen, Thompson, Chalmer, Mutegi, Jomo, Rogan, Patricia, Skelton, Seena |
| Source Sets | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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