U.S. public schools function as contemporary institutions of normalization, similar to prisons or health systems. They construct "normalcy" and position students who deviate as "abnormal" or "sick." Schools are the most proliferating mechanism making the "othering" of disability visible. This framework avoids interrogating the system's historical and sociopolitical foundations.

State University of New York at Binghamton

- Schools as Normalization Institutions
- Special Education's Roots in the Medical Model
- Ability/Disability Binary

The Systematic Ways U.S. Schools Construct and Perpetuate Disability As Deficit

Lester, J. N. (Ed.). (2021). Discursive Psychology and Disability. Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology. Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Reference For: Discursive Psychology and Disability

Schools as Normalization Institutions

Traditional special education roots itself in pathologization, intervention, and Eugenist philosophies. Students with disabilities are viewed through a deficit lens requiring them to be "fixed." The system demands students adapt to fit existing structures rather than questioning those structures. This approach perpetuates harm and dehumanization.

Special Education's Roots in the Medical Model

Schools sustain a rigid binary between ability and disability based on medicalized conceptions. This dichotomy positions students categorically as "abled" or "dis/abled" with hierarchical implications. The binary naturalizes the idea that some students are competent while others are incompetent. Fixed categories prevent recognition of disability as socially constructed.

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