Feminist Disability Studies Pedagogy at the Corporate University: Or, how innovative is Disruptive Innovation?

For the past several years I have served on a committee tasked with reviewing and revising general education at my institution while simultaneously teaching undergraduate disability studies and women’s studies courses. As this experience has made me acutely aware, the priorities driving policy discussions on the future of higher education are frequently at odds with inclusive pedagogical principles and practices. I am interested in bridging the gap between academic discussions of pedagogy focused on the classroom and policy discussions intent on reforming the business model of higher education by putting them into conversation. For instance, economists and education consultants who claim that “disruptive innovation” will make education more accessible by making it more affordable do not share the same robust definition of “accessibility” as disability studies scholars who identify the traditional large enrollment lecture as inaccessible. My discussion would provide an overview of feminist disability studies pedagogy (with attention to the possibilities and limitations of universal design principles in particular) and discuss classroom applications in order to consider the tensions and contradictions that surface when practicing this pedagogy in an institution that measures “success” in terms of student enrollment numbers. My purpose is to intervene in recent discussions of educational reform by demonstrating how pedagogical principles informed by disability studies and intersectional feminism can transform that conversation.