Storytelling and Disability in the Classroom: A Pre-Service Teacher’s Review of Disfigured by Amanda Leduc
Reviewed by Julia Miller
Who am I and what do I want to understand better as a teacher?
I am a pre-service teacher attending Oklahoma State University. As I prepare to teach at the secondary level, my goal is to learn how I can effectively make my classroom a safe, welcoming, and accessible space. I strive to educate myself on topics of disability in order to accommodate and celebrate each student’s unique identity. I believe it is important for each student to feel seen and valued—not only in class discussions, but in the literature to which they are exposed. Amanda Leduc’s book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space is a starting point for me to learn about disability and how I can create an inclusive environment for students with disabilities. Overall, Disfigured showed me that our role as ELA teachers coincides with our role as storytellers, and the stories we choose have powerful implications.
Who is the author and from what beliefs about learning do they come?
Amanda Leduc wrote Disfigured using her personal experiences as a disabled woman. Leduc has mild cerebral palsy and spastic hemiplegia, which affected the way she saw the world and the way she was perceived by others. Leduc writes, “I knew, growing up, that my life as a disabled child was just as valuable as that of any other girl. But I did not know—and sometimes I still don’t—how to fit physically into that valuable space” (p. 29). As a child, Leduc viewed learning environments as hostile spaces where she was isolated from her peers. Reading this as a pre-service teacher, I felt troubled by Leduc’s negative experience in school and I was compelled to ask critical questions: Why are learning environments hostile to students with disabilities? How can we as teachers create a positive learning environment for these students?
What problem in teaching and learning does this book uncover?
Leduc highlights the consequences of storytelling when it excludes, misrepresents, or harmfully portrays people with disabilities. Specifically, Leduc investigates the problematic nature of fairy tales and myths. For example, she critiques the Greek myth of Oedipus, in which Oedipus, who has a club foot, is expected to “overcome” his disability and “prove himself worthy” (p. 33). This constructs the harmful belief that people with disabilities are inferior. This belief reflects and contributes to the ignorance of an ableist society. Leduc poses an important question: “How many lives…haven’t been allowed to flourish because of the stories we tell?” (p. 54). Harmful or exclusionary storytelling creates a hostile space for students with disabilities. We as teachers must ask ourselves which stories we are telling and how these stories impact our students’ lives.
What is Leduc’s answer to this problem?
“It is time for us to tell different stories. It is time for a different world,” Leduc writes. “When I tell stories now… I use them to interrogate the world (pp. 231-232). This is Leduc’s call to action for teachers: to use storytelling as a tool for seeing the world in new ways. In this way, students have windows into the lived experiences of people with disabilities; additionally, students who are disabled can see themselves reflected in the text (Bishop, 2015). Currently, ELA classrooms focus on canonical literature, in which disabled people are typically absent. Leduc’s call to action requires teachers to expand beyond the limitations of canonical literature.
What is an important quote from this book?
Leduc asserts, “Give me stories where disability is synonymous with a different way of seeing the world and a recognition that the world can itself grow as a result of this viewpoint” (235). The classroom, then, can shift from a hostile environment to a positive environment by incorporating diverse stories. As teachers, we should utilize storytelling to celebrate disabled voices and to recognize the identities and experiences of every student in our classroom.
References
Bishop, R. S. Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Reading Is Fundamental. (2015, March 1). Retrieved April 29, 2022, from https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/ 08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf.
Leduc, A. (2020). Disfigured: On Fairy tales, disability, and making space. Point-par-Point Inc.
Julia, I love the quote that resonated with you. Representation in the classroom matters.