Carole Edelsky is a Professor of Language Arts in the Division of Curriculum and Instruction at Arizona State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of New Mexico in 1974. Her dissertation was the first study of children’s awareness of gender stereotypes in language use; it won the Popejoy Outstanding Dissertation Award (Outstanding Dissertation from the College of Education, Business, and Liberal Arts for 1974-1977) in 1977. Dr. Edelsky has won several additional awards for her work in education and has participated in numerous other service projects throughout her career. Dr. Edelsky’s research interests include first and second language literacy, gender and language, critical literacy, and classroom discourse. Her influence on education and research within her field of study has been and continues to be great.

Students with disabilities have a right to a high quality education, an education that goes beyond a focus on skills and instead sets its sights on loftier goals (promoting equity), more ethical dispositions (e.g., a concern for fairness), and more elusive but critical habits of mind (e.g., engaging with inquiry). All students deserve such an education, and students with disabilities are no exception. What does such an education look like? What is the teacher doing? And what is the principal doing?

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