Parekh, GillianRichmond, Aaron John2024-07-182024-07-182024-05-172024-07-18https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42202Located in the field of education, my dissertation examines the representations of disability in 12 popular children’s and young adult novels that are commonly being taught in Ontario schools. Throughout my study, I have used autocritical disability studies, autoethnography, and critical inquiry-based research methods to answer the central research questions of my dissertation within a critical disability studies informed social constructivist theoretical frame. 1. How are disabled first-person protagonists depicted in the contemporary realistic children’s and young adult literature that is being taught in grades 7 through 12 in Ontario schools? 2. How can “asset-based pedagogies” (Waitoller & King Thorius, 2023, p. xv) be used by teachers in the language arts classroom to teach disability-themed children’s and young adult literature in a disability “culturally authentic” (Brown, 2020, p. 141) manner? Based on Bates’ (2017) survey of the texts being taught in grades 7-12 in Ontario schools, I initially located 39 disability-themed children’s and young adult novels which I reduced to the 12 texts containing 12 disabled first-person protagonists that I have analysed in this study, using a comprehensive inclusion and exclusion criteria. I thereafter applied criteria informed by critical disability studies, education, and English literature scholars to critique disability representation in cultural texts. By deconstructing the portrayals of disability in 12 popular novels through a critical disability studies lens, I have exposed the systemic ableism that is present in many of the stories containing disabled characters which negatively impacts students’ beliefs about disability and disabled people. In response to my second research question, I have developed a new application regarding culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy (CRRP) by demonstrating how CRRP can be used to teach disability-themed literature in a culturally affirming manner in the language arts classroom by using the middle-grade novel A Kind of Spark (McNicoll, 2020) as an illustration. My thesis concludes by making recommendations for teacher preparation programs and in-service teachers for future research in literary disability studies, and disability studies in education regarding the selection, analysis, and teaching of disability-themed children’s and young adult literature.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.EducationLanguage artsLiteratureElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2024-07-18Critical disability studiesDisability representationLanguage arts educationChildren’s and young adult literatureCulturally relevant and responsive pedagogyDisability-themed novelsSchool literatureChildren’s school readingYoung adult school reading