Rathgeber, J., & bell, a. p.  (Forthcoming). Disability as disruption in music education. In SAGE Handbook of School Music Education.

Abstract: Disability as an identity and/or lived experience is a way of being diverse, but disability itself is diverse, too. The implications of this reality are manifold for the field of music education and amplified by the fact that the global population of disabled persons/persons with disabilities is estimated to be over 15%, which is more than one billion people. Using a narrative-informed approach and drawing theory from disability justice and DisCrit (disability and critical race theory) discourses, we tell the stories of a learner named Ray as they make their way through classes as a music education major. We highlight moments when disability, broadly, and Ray’s specific experiences as a disabled person/person with a disability manifest points of disruption. These moments of disruption provide opportunities to move toward justice, although they can slip past unremarked upon. We model how to make use of disability justice and DisCrit to identify points of disruption, reflect upon them, and dream/act. After introducing Ray and the tents of disability justice and DisCrit, we share vignettes that capture common experiences of disabled persons/person with disabilities, each including points of disruption. We encourage readers to identify, reflect, and dream related to the points of disruption embedded in these vignettes. In this way, we encourage readers to join in collaborative dreaming toward justice. 

Rathgeber, J., Thomas-Durrell, L., Miller, M., Pilmer, E., Stelzer, S., Stringham, D. A., & Templeton, G. (Forthcoming). Beyond performing inclusion: Learning and teaching through Disability Studies. In K. McCord, C. Cowell &, D. VanderLinde (Eds.), Oxford Handbook On Special Music Education and Music Therapy

Abstract: Abstract:
Research and practice related to inclusion and the growth of disabled learners/learners with disabilities (DL/LwDs) are shaped by the, sometimes unacknowledged, ideological frameworks of researchers and practitioners, as well as of learners and their peers/community members (e.g., Brantlinger, 1997; 2006; Lubet, 2011a; Rathgeber, 2019). Disability Studies, a relatively new academic field, provides different frameworks that may help scholars and practitioners to identify and challenge unacknowledged assumptions, identify barriers for participation and agency, as well as to craft new teaching practices and music making techniques along with DL/LwDs. In this chapter, we share findings and on-going analysis from a professional learning community (PLC) project in which preservice music education majors and music teacher educators explored Disability Studies literature and topics. We explore topics, including, but not limited to, models of disability (e.g., Oliver, 2013; Kuppers, 2009; Lubet, 2011b; Shakespeare, 2013), identity (e.g., Egner, 2019; Murugami, 2009), agency (e.g., Abramo & Pierce, 2013; Cameron, 2013), and disability justice (Sins Invalid, 2013; 2020) to consider, critique, and create more accessible, adaptive, agentic, and meaningful music making and music learning experiences for and with DL/LwDs. Specifically, we explore three frameworks--individual, social, and interactional (Rathgeber, 2019) and demonstrate their use to consider and critique common ideas and practices (i.e., label-based methods, adaptive technology, and social mainstreaming) in order to collaborate with DL/LwDs in crafting meaningful music making and music learning experiences. We also share broad lessons that one can learn through Disability Studies, including the role of dis/comfort as an educator, the importance of community, challenging ableist notions of “excellence,” and moving from performing to being/becoming inclusive. We conclude by sharing resources and ideas for the reader's further exploration and development related to Disability Studies and Music Education. 


References:
Abramo, J. M., & Pierce, A. E. (2013). An ethnographic case study of music learning at a school for the blind. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, (195), 9-24.

Brantlinger, E. (2006). Conclusion: Whose Labels? Whose Norms? Whose Needs? Whose Benefits?. In E. Brandlinger (Ed)., Who Benefits From Special Education? (pp. 247-262). Routledge.

Brantlinger, E. (1997). Using ideology: Cases of nonrecognition of the politics of research and practice in special education. Review of educational research, 67(4), 425-459.

Cameron, C. (Ed.). (2013). Disability studies: A student's guide. SAGE.

Egner, J. E. (2019). “The disability rights community was never mine”: Neuroqueer disidentification. Gender & Society, 33(1), 123-147.

Kuppers, P. (2009). Toward a rhizomatic model of disability: Poetry, performance, and touch. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 3(3), 221-241.

Lubet, A. (2011a). Disability rights, music and the case for inclusive education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(1), 57-70.

Lubet, A. (2011b). Music, disability, and society. Temple University Press.

Murugami, M. W. (2009). Disability and identity. Disability studies quarterly, 29(4).

Oliver, M. (2013). The social model of disability: Thirty years on. Disability & society, 28(7), 1024-1026.

Rathgeber, J. (2019). Troubling disability: Experiences of disability in, through, and around music. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

Shakespeare, T. (2013). Disability rights and wrongs revisited. Routledge.

Sins Invalid. (2019). Skin, tooth, and bone: The basis of movement is our people - A disability justice primer (2nd ed.). Sins Invalid.

Sins Invalid. (2020, June 16). What is disability justice? Sins Invalid. https://www.sinsinvalid.org/news-1/2020/6/16/what-is-disability-justice. 

Hammel, A. M., & Rathgeber, J. (2021). Living at the intersection of tablets, music, and disability. In G. Greher, & S. L. Burton (Eds.), Creative Music Making at Your Fingertips: A Mobile Technology Guide for Music Educators (pp. 29-42). Oxford University Press.

Abstract: ​The chapter considers potential possibilities and pitfalls encountered by music learners and scholar-practitioners when using tablet-based technologies for music making and learning. The authors address this question by providing a nuanced, anti-ableist, and balanced discussion of issues that arise at the intersection of adaptive and tablet-based technologies, music learning and making, and disability. First, the chapter highlights applications and approaches discussed elsewhere in the volume, addressing their potentials for fostering adaptive, inclusive, equitable, and meaningful music learning and making with and for disabled musickers/musickers with disabilities (DM/MwD) that can include tablets. Then the authors draw on theoretical perspectives indigenous to discourses about disability studies to problematize these resources, calling attention to potentially negative implications related to autonomy, extracurricular advancement, and othering rooted in and affirming ableism. The chapter concludes with questions and suggestions to assist music learners and scholar-practitioners in navigating the intersections and interactions of tablet-based technologies, use of apps, music learning and making, and disability.

Rathgeber, J. (2020). Design to break barriers: An adaptive instrument project. In A. P. Bell (Ed.), The music technology cookbook: Ready-made recipes for the classroom. Oxford University Press.

Abstract: In this experience, learners will develop critical consciousness of barriers to participation rooted in ableism that are “baked into” instruments. This critical consciousness will assist learners in creating controllers with lower/no barriers for disabled persons/persons with disabilities.Learners will encounter concepts such as the “social model of disability” that come from Disability Studies scholarship in order to find and address disabling features of commercially-available instruments and to design new instruments, controllers, and practices that are anti-ableist. Through these experiences, learners will develop skills and knowledge related to using microcontrollers such as the Makey Makey and coding platforms such as Scratch through an iterative design process

Rathgeber, J. (2019). Troubling disability: Experiences of disability in, through, and around music. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. 

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to trouble existing conceptions of disability that ground music education literature and practice. I sought plausible insights into how disability is experienced in, through, and/or around music by participants who are disabled persons/persons with disabilities (DP/PwD). Insights gained might allow readers to complexify and trouble taken-for-granted assumptions about disability. Questions included: (a) How do participants experience disability in, through, and around music? (b) What plausible insights related to disability can be gained by attending to participants’ experiences of disability in, through, and around music? (c) What plausible insights related to inclusion can be gained by attending to participants’ experiences of disability in, through, and around music? The inquiry approach was grounded in Buberian relational ontology, phenomenollogy, interactional theories of disability, and narrative. Seven DP/PwD participated in this study: (a) Erica, a 14-year-old diagnosed with a developmental disability of unknown etiology; (b) Duke, a drummer diagnosed with Williams syndrome; (c) Birdie, an abstract visual artist with epilepsy who used music to inform her art; (d) Daren, a b-boy/breakdancer diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, (e) Sienna, a legally blind social work college student who played banjo in a music therapy-based bluegrass band and participated in musical theatre; (f) Ice Queen, an undergraduate flute player recently diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and (g) Culann, an adult counselor and music listener with ADHD and mood disorders. Data generation included conversational interviews, observations, artmaking, and serendipitous data. Data co-generated with participants were crafted into narratives of their lIifeworlds, including description of their experiences with disability in, through, and around music and in other aspects of their lives. An envisioned conversation among all participants demonstrates the shifts and complexities in the meanings of disability and unpacks different ways participants describe and understand disability and the myriad roles that music plays in their lifeworlds. The final chapter of the study offers discussions and suggestions regarding thinking about and approaching disability (i.e., interactional theories, intersectionality, and identity), inclusion (i.e., belonging, suggestions by participants, and anti-ableist pedagogy), and research/writing. …View full abstract

Rathgeber, J. (2017). A place in the band: Negotiating barriers to inclusion in a rock band ​ setting. In G. D. Smith, M. Brennan, P. Kirkman, Z. Moir, & S. Sambarran (Eds.), Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (pp. 369-381). London, UK: Routledge.

Introduction: In this chapter I discuss means of fostering inclusive music making experiences as demonstrated in the practices of a music therapy rock band, the Smooth Criminals. The band uses many adaptive strategies to mitigate physical barriers to participation that may be useful in other music learning spaces. The band’s practices provide means of identifying and negotiating social barriers deeply rooted within popular and informal learning practices. 

Rathgeber, J. (Unpublished). Seeing disability: A content analysis of photographs of disability in the Music Educators Journal, 1932-2015. Unpublished manuscript, Music Education and Music Therapy Division, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

​Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the what, how, and extent to which disabled persons have been represented photographically in the popular music education publication known as the Music Educators Journal (MEJ). I used captions/text and visual means to identify photographs of disabled persons in 643 issues of the MEJ from 1914 until 2015. Data for this content analysis included every photograph of disabled persons (N = 186) located. Photographs were analyzed for disability labels, setting, integration, activities depicted, percieved race, location in the journal, and decade. The majority of photographs of disabled persons were found in the 1980s, possibly in response to the 1975 legislation PL 94-142 (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Mental impairment was the most frequently represented disability in the photographs (30.1%), followed by visual impairment (9.7%), hearing impairment (7.0%), with 30/1% of photographs depicting persons with unspecified disability labels. Additionally, I found an overabundance of general music classroom settings for photographs (37.1%) as compared to all other music education classroom settings (16.1%). Overall, the limited percentage of disabled persons in the MEJ suggests a marginal status and/or concern for disabled persons within the popular consciousness of music education of the United States.