{"id":31069,"date":"2026-02-18T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/?p=31069"},"modified":"2026-02-25T09:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:44:31","slug":"positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interdependent Approach: Building and Centring Positive Disability Identities in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Michael Carter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a disabled teacher. Cerebral palsy is as much a part of me as being a curly-haired white man in my forties. For me, I don\u2019t live with<\/em> cerebral palsy or have<\/em> cerebral palsy. These descriptions feel like they\u2019re added-on or reluctantly dragged around. My personhood is inseparable from cerebral palsy\u2014they are inexorably intertwined. For this reason, I much prefer\u2014and use\u2014the term \u201cdisabled person\u201d over \u201cperson with a disability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first half of my teaching career, I kept these matters to myself in educational contexts. I was an instrumental music teacher interested in disability studies, but I avoided wading into the special education arena. For the last seven years, however, I\u2019ve intentionally connected who I am with what I do, as a learning support teacher in Alberta.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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As educators, we aim to create meaningful, exciting, and supportive futures for all of our students. That\u2019s why we must build learning environments where positive disability identities grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":31688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2950,4222,3154,2941],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-classroom-perspectives","8":"category-featured","9":"category-social-justice","10":"category-special-education"},"yoast_head":"\nAn Interdependent Approach: Building and Centring Positive Disability Identities in the Classroom - TEACH Magazine<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from teachmag.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/31069 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:46:06 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"description\" content=\"As educators, we aim to create meaningful, exciting, and supportive futures for all of our students.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=https://teachmag.com/"https:////teachmag.com//positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom///" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Interdependent Approach: Building and Centring Positive Disability Identities in the Classroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How can we build learning environments where positive disability identities grow?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TEACH Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/teachmag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-18T13:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T14:44:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disability-Identities_X_2400px.jpg?_t=1772030671\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1256\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Carter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@teachmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@teachmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Carter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Carter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a838da894d4a989584789a91b6bea45\"},\"headline\":\"An Interdependent Approach: Building and Centring Positive Disability Identities in the Classroom\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-18T13:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-25T14:44:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/\"},\"wordCount\":1316,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disability-Identities_Web_1920px.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Classroom Perspectives\",\"Featured\",\"Social Justice\",\"Special Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/teachmag.com\/positive-disability-identities-in-the-classroom\/\",\"name\":\"An Interdependent Approach: Building and Centring Positive Disability Identities in the Classroom - 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