Maggie R Beneke
Biographic Data
| ID | 1585568 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maggie R Beneke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maggie R |
| FAMILY NAME | Beneke |
| SIGNATURE | BENEKE M R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8981-0744 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Revealing and resisting ableism in the deficit positioning of families
Resisting developmentalism: A Black mother-teacher's relational pedagogy of knowing her child
Early learning contexts often promote narrow developmental expectations that inherently ignore and dismiss Black boys’ ways of knowing and being. However, adults in their lives can resist how rigid racial-ability hierarchies are instantiated in early childhood. This qualitative case study examines how a Black mother-teacher and her preschool-aged son engaged in co-resistance within their classroom. We asked: How are a Black mother-teacher's belie…
“I Would Catch Coronavirus as My Pet”: Exploring Young Children’s Compositional Play Amid Crisis
Context: In moments of social crisis, adults may wonder what to say to the young children in their care. Yet children are often already making meaning of and taking action on their worlds. In this qualitative case study of a virtual writing and art workshop, we sought to listen to young children’s play and composing about the COVID-19 pandemic and intersecting crises. Research Question: Drawing on critical childhood studies and Bakhtin’s carnival…
Conceptualizing White-Ability Saviorism: A Necessary Reckoning With Ableism in Urban Teacher Education
White saviorism is a well-documented phenomenon in the education literature. Particularly, researchers have made connections between white saviorism and teacher preparation for urban contexts serving Students of Color negatively impacted by legacies of systemic racism. Scholars are increasingly taking an intersectional lens to understand the ways in which racism and ableism intersect, yet much of the literature on white saviorism does not critica…
“I Draw Mommy Right Here . . . Wearing Mask”: Care, Criticality, and Crip Linguistics Through Early Childhood Literacy
The intersecting crises of 2020 had profound impacts on disabled young children. Existing literature has centered on the challenges disabled children faced and the interventions they needed. Few studies have offered counternarratives that showcase their critical insights, playful interactions, or relational meaning making. In this qualitative case study, we explored how disabled young children and their caregivers used language and literacy as th…
DisCrit mothering: Interrogating consequential education for our children’s lives and humanity
In this special issue, a collective of mother-scholar-activists focus on exploring the possibilities for an intersectional critical stance for motherhood. Building on and extending the field of Critical Race Parenting (ParentCrit), we propose a global DisCrit Mothering approach. We draw from Disability Critical Race Theory in Education (DisCrit) and Revolutionary Mothering, to forward DisCrit Mothering as politicized action (as opposed to biologi…
Solidarity on the screen and six feet apart? DisCrit mothering amid multiple social crises
In justice movements, solidarity means showing up for the humanity of others. This paper explores DisCrit mothering as a form of solidarity with children and families dehumanized by ableism and racism. As three motherscholars, who occupy varying spaces of privilege/marginalization in the academy, we reflect on our attempts to support our communities through DisCrit mothering, especially amid a global pandemic, uprisings for racial justice, and on…
Dismantling Carceral Logics in the Urban Early Literacy Classroom: Towards Liberatory Literacy Pedagogies with/for Multiply-Marginalized Young Children
Although literacy can be a space for joy and criticality, urban early literacy classrooms are imbued with carceral logics, criminalizing young children along lines of race, disability, and language. To support teachers in enacting liberatory early literacy pedagogies, teacher educators must contend with the harm dominant literacy approaches can produce for multiply-marginalized young children. We describe how early literacy routines are (1) const…
So That I May Hope to Honor You”: Centering Wholeness, Agency, and Brilliance in Qualitative Research With Multiply Marginalized Young Children
Scholars of early childhood education have urged qualitative researchers to adapt their methods for use with young children. However, unjust social imaginations of childhood (e.g., who is considered a “child”) play out in qualitative research, particularly for young children who are made most vulnerable by intersecting oppressions (e.g., racism, linguicism, ableism). Extending Morrison’s metaphor of “the white gaze,” we argue that qualitative res…
Struggling toward abolition and dreaming beyond ableism in teacher education
Abolition is a verb, referencing how people build safe conditions while dismantling (and developing solutions beyond) harmful institutions, including within education. Considering disability justice movement work in our roles as teacher educators, we explored how we might contend with the harmful purposes and functions of educational structures as we prepare future teachers to adopt abolitionist stances in their pedagogies. We begin with the prem…
Whiteness and Ability: Discourses in Disability History Curriculum Legislation
This Policy Discourse Analysis (PDA) explores 19 state legislative documents focused on the teaching of disability history in K-12 schools. Framed through critical perspectives on constructions of disability and race, alongside discourse theory, we iteratively analyzed these legislative documents to understand (a) how disability and disability history are constructed (particularly in relation to whiteness); and (b) the stated purpose of the legis…
Rise Up, Hand in Hand”: Early Childhood Teachers Writing a Liberatory Literacy Pedagogy
Although writing is often used for personal reflection in teacher education, it is less commonly leveraged to imagine educational futures (Gilligan, 2020)—particularly those centered on collective liberation. Amid intersecting social crises, however, imagining futures is critically important (Ladson-Billings, 2021), and writing is a crucial step toward bringing them into the present. In this participatory case study (Reilly, 2010), we explored th…
Emotional Geographies of Exclusion: Whiteness and Ability in Teacher Education Research
Context: Geographies of exclusion (e.g., segregated special education classrooms, school district zoning) are constituted through intersecting oppressive ideologies (e.g., ableism, racism, classism) that co-naturalize notions of “normalcy” and deviance and yield harmful consequences for disabled children of Color. Geographies of exclusion dynamically contribute to and constitute teacher candidates’ feelings about themselves and their social world…
A DisCrit Analysis of Quality in Early Childhood: Toward Pedagogies of Wholeness, Access, and Interdependence
Background: In U.S. contexts, the language of “quality” early childhood education is widely invoked to evaluate the “goodness” of teaching and learning and is often leveraged in attempts to ameliorate inequities. Likewise, efforts to define and achieve generalizable conceptualizations of early childhood quality often guide what takes place in teacher education. Though objections to quality reform efforts and the ways they uphold white supremacy h…
DisCrit Literacies: Early Childhood Teachers Critically Reading School as Text and Imagining an Otherwise
In this participatory case study, we explored the critical literacy practices of early‐career early childhood teachers in a year‐long inquiry group, examining how they collectively read school as text through DisCrit literacies. Bridging literature from Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) and critical literacies scholarship, DisCrit literacies involve practices of critically reading school itself as text and uncovering intersecting systems …
Who May Be Competent? Mothering Young Children of Color with Disabilities and the Politics of Care
In this critical, qualitative study, we utilized Disability Critical Race Theory and revolutionary mothering to understand how Mothers of Color who have young children with disabilities made meaning of underlying constitutions of competence within schools, and how they conceptualized possibility for justice in early childhood. Findings reveal how Mothers enacted political clarity regarding ableism and racism as they mothered for respect and care.…
Investigating Young Children’s Conceptualizations of Disability and Race: An Intersectional, Multiplane Critique
Education researchers have extensively documented young children’s capacity to exhibit “bias” in relation to disability or race. By and large, data generation has focused on children’s awareness and attitudes about disability or race, rather than how interactions and structures construct and reinforce them. Bridging disability critical race theory (DisCrit) and sociocultural perspectives, this essay proposes the need for intersectional, multiplan…
Teacher Candidates Talking (but Not Talking) About Dis/ability and Race in Preschool
In educational contexts, including early childhood settings, ableism and racism circulate interdependently to define normalcy and deviance. Book reading offers an important platform for dismantling these interlocking ideologies with young children. In this article, we examine dis/ability and race talk in the context of picture-book reading, analyzing the ways four white, nondisabled teacher candidates attempted to discursively resist deficit-base…
The mediating role of exclusionary school organizations in pre-service teachers’ constructions of inclusion
In this article, we build on the extant literature documenting efforts to reform teacher education for inclusive education in the United States to demonstrate the complexity of preparing teachers to enact inclusive education given their own educational trajectories. We draw on qualitative data from a larger study on the nature and impact of an undergraduate course in inclusive education, providing an empirical analysis of the mediating role of ge…
Dismantling Carceral Logics in the Urban Early Literacy Classroom: Towards Liberatory Literacy Pedagogies with/for Multiply-Marginalized Young Children
Although literacy can be a space for joy and criticality, urban early literacy classrooms are imbued with carceral logics, criminalizing young children along lines of race, disability, and language. To support teachers in enacting liberatory early literacy pedagogies, teacher educators must contend with the harm dominant literacy approaches can produce for multiply-marginalized young children. We describe how early literacy routines are (1) const…
Investigating Young Children’s Conceptualizations of Disability and Race: An Intersectional, Multiplane Critique
Education researchers have extensively documented young children’s capacity to exhibit “bias” in relation to disability or race. By and large, data generation has focused on children’s awareness and attitudes about disability or race, rather than how interactions and structures construct and reinforce them. Bridging disability critical race theory (DisCrit) and sociocultural perspectives, this essay proposes the need for intersectional, multiplan…
So That I May Hope to Honor You”: Centering Wholeness, Agency, and Brilliance in Qualitative Research With Multiply Marginalized Young Children
Scholars of early childhood education have urged qualitative researchers to adapt their methods for use with young children. However, unjust social imaginations of childhood (e.g., who is considered a “child”) play out in qualitative research, particularly for young children who are made most vulnerable by intersecting oppressions (e.g., racism, linguicism, ableism). Extending Morrison’s metaphor of “the white gaze,” we argue that qualitative res…
DisCrit Literacies: Early Childhood Teachers Critically Reading School as Text and Imagining an Otherwise
In this participatory case study, we explored the critical literacy practices of early‐career early childhood teachers in a year‐long inquiry group, examining how they collectively read school as text through DisCrit literacies. Bridging literature from Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) and critical literacies scholarship, DisCrit literacies involve practices of critically reading school itself as text and uncovering intersecting systems …
Rise Up, Hand in Hand”: Early Childhood Teachers Writing a Liberatory Literacy Pedagogy
Although writing is often used for personal reflection in teacher education, it is less commonly leveraged to imagine educational futures (Gilligan, 2020)—particularly those centered on collective liberation. Amid intersecting social crises, however, imagining futures is critically important (Ladson-Billings, 2021), and writing is a crucial step toward bringing them into the present. In this participatory case study (Reilly, 2010), we explored th…
The mediating role of exclusionary school organizations in pre-service teachers’ constructions of inclusion
In this article, we build on the extant literature documenting efforts to reform teacher education for inclusive education in the United States to demonstrate the complexity of preparing teachers to enact inclusive education given their own educational trajectories. We draw on qualitative data from a larger study on the nature and impact of an undergraduate course in inclusive education, providing an empirical analysis of the mediating role of ge…
Teacher Candidates Talking (but Not Talking) About Dis/ability and Race in Preschool
In educational contexts, including early childhood settings, ableism and racism circulate interdependently to define normalcy and deviance. Book reading offers an important platform for dismantling these interlocking ideologies with young children. In this article, we examine dis/ability and race talk in the context of picture-book reading, analyzing the ways four white, nondisabled teacher candidates attempted to discursively resist deficit-base…
Who May Be Competent? Mothering Young Children of Color with Disabilities and the Politics of Care
In this critical, qualitative study, we utilized Disability Critical Race Theory and revolutionary mothering to understand how Mothers of Color who have young children with disabilities made meaning of underlying constitutions of competence within schools, and how they conceptualized possibility for justice in early childhood. Findings reveal how Mothers enacted political clarity regarding ableism and racism as they mothered for respect and care.…
Investigating Young Children’s Conceptualizations of Disability and Race: An Intersectional, Multiplane Critique
Education researchers have extensively documented young children’s capacity to exhibit “bias” in relation to disability or race. By and large, data generation has focused on children’s awareness and attitudes about disability or race, rather than how interactions and structures construct and reinforce them. Bridging disability critical race theory (DisCrit) and sociocultural perspectives, this essay proposes the need for intersectional, multiplan…
Emotional Geographies of Exclusion: Whiteness and Ability in Teacher Education Research
Context: Geographies of exclusion (e.g., segregated special education classrooms, school district zoning) are constituted through intersecting oppressive ideologies (e.g., ableism, racism, classism) that co-naturalize notions of “normalcy” and deviance and yield harmful consequences for disabled children of Color. Geographies of exclusion dynamically contribute to and constitute teacher candidates’ feelings about themselves and their social world…
A DisCrit Analysis of Quality in Early Childhood: Toward Pedagogies of Wholeness, Access, and Interdependence
Background: In U.S. contexts, the language of “quality” early childhood education is widely invoked to evaluate the “goodness” of teaching and learning and is often leveraged in attempts to ameliorate inequities. Likewise, efforts to define and achieve generalizable conceptualizations of early childhood quality often guide what takes place in teacher education. Though objections to quality reform efforts and the ways they uphold white supremacy h…
DisCrit Literacies: Early Childhood Teachers Critically Reading School as Text and Imagining an Otherwise
In this participatory case study, we explored the critical literacy practices of early‐career early childhood teachers in a year‐long inquiry group, examining how they collectively read school as text through DisCrit literacies. Bridging literature from Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) and critical literacies scholarship, DisCrit literacies involve practices of critically reading school itself as text and uncovering intersecting systems …
Whiteness and Ability: Discourses in Disability History Curriculum Legislation
This Policy Discourse Analysis (PDA) explores 19 state legislative documents focused on the teaching of disability history in K-12 schools. Framed through critical perspectives on constructions of disability and race, alongside discourse theory, we iteratively analyzed these legislative documents to understand (a) how disability and disability history are constructed (particularly in relation to whiteness); and (b) the stated purpose of the legis…
Rise Up, Hand in Hand”: Early Childhood Teachers Writing a Liberatory Literacy Pedagogy
Although writing is often used for personal reflection in teacher education, it is less commonly leveraged to imagine educational futures (Gilligan, 2020)—particularly those centered on collective liberation. Amid intersecting social crises, however, imagining futures is critically important (Ladson-Billings, 2021), and writing is a crucial step toward bringing them into the present. In this participatory case study (Reilly, 2010), we explored th…
DisCrit mothering: Interrogating consequential education for our children’s lives and humanity
In this special issue, a collective of mother-scholar-activists focus on exploring the possibilities for an intersectional critical stance for motherhood. Building on and extending the field of Critical Race Parenting (ParentCrit), we propose a global DisCrit Mothering approach. We draw from Disability Critical Race Theory in Education (DisCrit) and Revolutionary Mothering, to forward DisCrit Mothering as politicized action (as opposed to biologi…
Solidarity on the screen and six feet apart? DisCrit mothering amid multiple social crises
In justice movements, solidarity means showing up for the humanity of others. This paper explores DisCrit mothering as a form of solidarity with children and families dehumanized by ableism and racism. As three motherscholars, who occupy varying spaces of privilege/marginalization in the academy, we reflect on our attempts to support our communities through DisCrit mothering, especially amid a global pandemic, uprisings for racial justice, and on…
Dismantling Carceral Logics in the Urban Early Literacy Classroom: Towards Liberatory Literacy Pedagogies with/for Multiply-Marginalized Young Children
Although literacy can be a space for joy and criticality, urban early literacy classrooms are imbued with carceral logics, criminalizing young children along lines of race, disability, and language. To support teachers in enacting liberatory early literacy pedagogies, teacher educators must contend with the harm dominant literacy approaches can produce for multiply-marginalized young children. We describe how early literacy routines are (1) const…
So That I May Hope to Honor You”: Centering Wholeness, Agency, and Brilliance in Qualitative Research With Multiply Marginalized Young Children
Scholars of early childhood education have urged qualitative researchers to adapt their methods for use with young children. However, unjust social imaginations of childhood (e.g., who is considered a “child”) play out in qualitative research, particularly for young children who are made most vulnerable by intersecting oppressions (e.g., racism, linguicism, ableism). Extending Morrison’s metaphor of “the white gaze,” we argue that qualitative res…
Struggling toward abolition and dreaming beyond ableism in teacher education
Abolition is a verb, referencing how people build safe conditions while dismantling (and developing solutions beyond) harmful institutions, including within education. Considering disability justice movement work in our roles as teacher educators, we explored how we might contend with the harmful purposes and functions of educational structures as we prepare future teachers to adopt abolitionist stances in their pedagogies. We begin with the prem…
Revealing and resisting ableism in the deficit positioning of families
Resisting developmentalism: A Black mother-teacher's relational pedagogy of knowing her child
Early learning contexts often promote narrow developmental expectations that inherently ignore and dismiss Black boys’ ways of knowing and being. However, adults in their lives can resist how rigid racial-ability hierarchies are instantiated in early childhood. This qualitative case study examines how a Black mother-teacher and her preschool-aged son engaged in co-resistance within their classroom. We asked: How are a Black mother-teacher's belie…
“I Would Catch Coronavirus as My Pet”: Exploring Young Children’s Compositional Play Amid Crisis
Context: In moments of social crisis, adults may wonder what to say to the young children in their care. Yet children are often already making meaning of and taking action on their worlds. In this qualitative case study of a virtual writing and art workshop, we sought to listen to young children’s play and composing about the COVID-19 pandemic and intersecting crises. Research Question: Drawing on critical childhood studies and Bakhtin’s carnival…
Conceptualizing White-Ability Saviorism: A Necessary Reckoning With Ableism in Urban Teacher Education
White saviorism is a well-documented phenomenon in the education literature. Particularly, researchers have made connections between white saviorism and teacher preparation for urban contexts serving Students of Color negatively impacted by legacies of systemic racism. Scholars are increasingly taking an intersectional lens to understand the ways in which racism and ableism intersect, yet much of the literature on white saviorism does not critica…
“I Draw Mommy Right Here . . . Wearing Mask”: Care, Criticality, and Crip Linguistics Through Early Childhood Literacy
The intersecting crises of 2020 had profound impacts on disabled young children. Existing literature has centered on the challenges disabled children faced and the interventions they needed. Few studies have offered counternarratives that showcase their critical insights, playful interactions, or relational meaning making. In this qualitative case study, we explored how disabled young children and their caregivers used language and literacy as th…
Sociology (15 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Ableism (11 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (11 works) · Pedagogy (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Education Discipline and Inequality (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Early childhood education (8 works) · Qualitative research (7 works)