Undoing Whiteness in Disability Studies / Progress in Mathematics (PDF)

"I read this in one sitting - a book I want to own not just recommend for my University library. Sana Rizvi does not evade the difficult territory and dominant narratives about race, sex and disability. Instead she problematises issues of patriarchy and ableism, showing how complicated the relationship is between mothers and those structures and contradictory worldviews. Using her intersectional lens to explore the mothering of disabled children from the British South Asian Muslim community, her book challenges myths and misinformation. It is relevant far more widely though, making it valuable reading for anyone interested in inclusion and belonging."
-Professor Melanie Nind, University of Southampton, UK

"This ground-breaking book attacks the white symbolic order that undergirds educational responses to students with disabilities and special educational needs. Through an engaging writing style, Rizvi offers an intersectional analysis of mothering and education that will have a huge influence on the field of education."

-Professor Dan Goodley, University of Sheffield, UK

This book offers a nuanced way to conceptualise South Asian Muslim families' experiences of disability within the UK. The book adopts an intersectional lens to engage with personal narratives on mothering disabled children, negotiating home-school relationships, and developing familiarity with the complex special education system. The author calls for a re-envisioning of special education and disability studies literature from its currently overwhelmingly White middle-class discourse, to one that espouses multi-ethnic and multi-faith perspectives. The book positions minoritised mothers at the forefront of the home-school relationship, who navigate the UK special education system amidst intersecting social inequalities. The author proposes that schools and both formal and informal institutions reformulate their roles in facilitating true inclusion for minoritised disabled families at an epistemic and systemic level.

Sana Rizvi is a Lecturer in Education at the University of Exeter, UK. Her research focuses on examining inclusive and exclusive processes that impact the educational experiences of minoritised families at various intersections. Her work centres on developing and engaging in ethical and feminist qualitative research methodologies that are better suited to examining the experiences of racism and Islamophobia within communities of colour.