Models of support for students with disability and learning difficulties in mainstream classes in Australia rely extensively on teacher assistants (TAs). Current models, however, inadvertently perpetuate low expectations because providing TA support can be one of the most restrictive supports offered in a school [Giangreco, M. F. 2010a.…

Paraprofessionals play an important role in the education of young children with, or at risk for, disabilities. Yet, because few training programs sufficiently infuse content related to serving special needs infants and toddlers, paraprofessionals typically lack the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to address effectively the requirements of…

We propose that Disability Studies in Education (DSE) offers a framework that (a) grounds policy and practice in the experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities, (c) challenges practices/ policy that isolate, de-humanize individuals, and (c) leads to new questions to pose. In this session, we describe the pedagogy that we used to…