“Nothing about us without us”: Including people with disabilities as teaching partners in university courses
Abstract
The slogan Nothing About Us Without Us has been used by disability rights activists to argue that any activity that affects people with disabilities should involve people with disabilities in leadership roles. At the University of New Hampshire, several graduate and undergraduate courses dealing with disability issues were co-taught by university faculty and individuals with disabilities. These co-teaching arrangements provided benefits to the co-instructors themselves as well as to scholars enrolled in the courses. This paper describes the course content; the roles of each co-instructor, drawing from the literature on co-teaching; some examples of feedback from scholars; challenges; and suggestions for making the teaching partnership successful. Some sections of the paper were written by the university faculty authors from the traditional, academic third person perspective. Other sections of the paper reflect the first-person, verbatim words of the individuals with disabilities.
Publication Date
9-1-2011
Journal Title
International Journal of Whole Schooling
Publisher
International Journal of Whole Schooling
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Jorgensen, C.M., Bates, K., Frechette, A., Curtin, J., & Sonnenmeier, R., (2011). “Nothing about us without us”: Including people with disabilities as teaching partners in university courses. International Journal of Whole Schooling.