Voices and Visions from Ethnoculturally Diverse Young People with Disabilities

Book excerpt: Many Canadian children from minority status groups experience long-term academic complexities, influencing their sense of school belonging and engagement. Research demonstrates children with intersecting differences of race, ethnicity, language, and disability, and those in their middle years (10–13 years old), undergo heightened academic challenges. Yet, what are children with disabilities’ personal schooling experiences, and how may these insights support inclusive learning, teaching, and sense of belonging? Within Toronto, one of the most diverse Canadian cities, this book explores the stories and experiences of six middle years children with intersecting differences of race, ethnicity, language, and disabilities (particularly autism). Through narrative and critical discourse analysis research methods the children’s views were accessed via a mosaic multi-method data collection approach, including their own photography, drawings, journal writings, imaginative story games, and interview texts. The children’s narratives illustrate their understandings of differences, learning, and inclusion. This book presents innovative insights highlighting the voices of children with disabilities as they navigate through complex issues of diversity and share how these impact their understandings and experiences of school inclusion and exclusion. The author advocates inviting the voices of children with intersecting differences into educational conversations and research processes, as they may adeptly advance areas of inclusion and diversity.