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David J Connor

Hunter College, Special Education, Emeritus

Graduate Center of the City University of New York, PhD Program in Urban Education, Faculty Member

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Born in the UK, I am an educator, writer, and artist who lives in New York City.
Address: Department of Special Education (Professor Emeritus)
Hunter College
695 Park Ave
New York, NY 10065

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Books by David J Connor

Embracing Diversity: Teachers' Everyday Practices in Secondary English Language Arts Classrooms

Teachers College Press, 2023

Embracing Diversity is about the craft of teaching, with a focus on celebrating the myriad of hum... more Embracing Diversity is about the craft of teaching, with a focus on celebrating the myriad of human identities through classic, contemporary, and unconventional texts. In the book, experienced secondary English language arts educators explore complex issues raised by a diverse body of writers, while simultaneously sharing methods that engage students to think critically.

Enacting Disability Critical Race Theory: From the Personal to the Global

This edited volume foregrounds Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) as an intersectional fra... more This edited volume foregrounds Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) as an intersectional framework that has informed scholarly analyses of racism and ableism from the personal to the global--offering important interventions into theory, practice, policy, and research. (It was originally published as a special issue of the journal of Race Ethnicity and Education).

Once Upon a Journey

Who hasn’t wondered about the lives of fellow passengers on a flight? This collection of short st... more Who hasn’t wondered about the lives of fellow passengers on a flight? This collection of short stories takes readers on a journey through the intimate thoughts of twenty-four strangers, coming to know their lives and loves, hopes and realities, fortunes and fears, all in real-time—from boarding at Heathrow to clearing customs at JFK.

Dis Crit Expanded

DisCrit [Disability Critical Race Theory] Expanded: Reverberations, Ruptures, & Inquiries, 2022

This sequel to the influential 2016 work DisCrit—Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in E... more This sequel to the influential 2016 work DisCrit—Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education explores how DisCrit has both deepened and expanded, providing increasingly nuanced understandings about how racism and ableism circulate across geographic borders, academic disciplines, multiplicative identities, intersecting oppressions, and individual and cultural resistances. Following an incisive introduction by DisCrit intellectual forerunner Alfredo Artiles, a diverse group of authors engage in inward, outward, and margin-to-margin analyses that raise deep and enduring questions about how we as scholars and teachers account for and counteract the collusive nature of oppressions faced by multiply minoritized individuals with disabilities, particularly in educational contexts. Contributors ask us to consider incisive questions, such as, what are the affordances and constraints of DisCrit as it travels outside of US contexts? How can DisCrit, as a critical and intersectional framework, be used to support and extend diverse forms of activism, expanded solidarities, and collective resistance? How can DisCrit inform and be augmented by engagements with other critical theories and modes of inquiry? How can DisCrit help to illuminate agency and resistance among learners with complex learning needs? How might DisCrit inform legal studies and other disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts? How can DisCrit be a critical friend to interrogations involving issues of citizenship, language, and more?
Book Features:
• Expands the discussion on DisCrit to include issues of language, citizenship, and post-secondary education, and more.
• Presents a robust engagement with DisCrit that reaches across disciplines, geographies, and temporalities.
• Highlights the lived experience of people with disabilities as knowledge generators fighting against the collusive power of racism and ableism.
• Recognizes that disability is complex, multifaceted and not bound by labels for Black people, Indigenous People, and other People of Color in educational experiences and throughout the lifespan
• Further explores the discussion on DisCrit while encouraging disability scholars to substantially integrate racism into their analyses, and for race scholars to do the same with ableism.

Just Keep Breathing: Tales of Love and Loss in NYC (Vol. 3)

The trilogy is an exploration of how people make sense of love and loss in their lives. It is set... more The trilogy is an exploration of how people make sense of love and loss in their lives. It is set in New York City, a microcosm of the world, with an astounding range of human diversity found throughout its five boroughs. The characters in these tales reflect that diversity, mirroring our commonalities in their strengths and frailties, desires and fears, hopes and struggles. In this particular volume readers encounter a charming gambler who makes wrong decisions, a lonely widow remembering her long deceased spouse, a teenager’s addiction that impacts is entire family, and an immigrant taxi driver yearning for the distant homeland of his youth. It is my own hope that the people in these stories can serve as a prism for us all to reflect upon what makes us who we are

How Teaching Shapes Our Thinking About Disabilities: Stories From The Field.

by David J Connor and Beth Ferri

This book purposefully connects practice to research, and vice versa, through the use of deeply p... more This book purposefully connects practice to research, and vice versa, through the use of deeply personal stories in the form of autoethnographic memoirs. In this collection, twenty contributors share selected tales of teaching students with dis/abilities in K-12 settings across the USA, including tentative triumphs, frustrating failures, and a deep desire to understand the dynamics of teaching and learning.The authors also share an early awareness of significant dissonance between academic knowledge taught to them in teacher education programs and their own experiential knowledge in schools. Coming to question established practices within the field of special education in relation to the children they taught, each author grew increasingly critical of deficit-models of disability that emphasized commonplace practices of physical and social exclusion, dysfunction and disorders, repetitive remediation and punitive punishments. The authors describe how their interactions with children and youth, parents, and administrators, in the context of their classrooms and schools, influenced a shift away from the limiting discourse of special education and toward becoming critical special educators and/or engaging with disability studies as a way to reclaim, reframe, and reimagine disability as a natural part of human diversity. Furthermore, the authors document how these early experiences in the everydayness of schooling helped ground them as teachers and later, teacher educators, who galvanized their research trajectories around studying issues of access and equality throughout educational structures and systems, while developing new theoretical models within Disability Studies in Education, aimed to impact practices and policies.

Just Keep Breathing -- Tales of Love and Loss in New York City (Vol. 1)

This volume is the first in a trilogy featuring fifty-two interconnected short stories of New Yor... more This volume is the first in a trilogy featuring fifty-two interconnected short stories of New Yorkers. The number of tales was chosen for two reasons. First, it reflects the weeks in a year, signifying the predictable circularity of time. Second, it symbolizes a deck of playing cards, representing unpredictable situations that involve luck—both good and bad—requiring choices to be made about the hand that’s dealt.

When contemplating what it means to be human, one of the things uniting us all is our experiences with love and loss. Not merely limited to a romantic sense, although admittedly, that is an important part of our world. Rather, we know there are many kinds of love we feel—for family members, friends, Gods, pets, idols, places…the list goes on. We also know everything that can be loved, can also be lost—to time, to chance, to change, to death. When this happens, we may experience great distress, disequilibrium in our lives, even disillusionment. And yet we move forward. We keep breathing. The losses fold into ourselves, becoming a part of who we are. We learn from them. And we keep loving.

This trilogy is an exploration of how people make sense of love and loss in their lives. It is set in New York City, a microcosm of the world, with an astounding range of human diversity found throughout its five boroughs. The characters in these tales reflect that diversity, mirroring our commonalities in their strengths and frailties, desires and fears, hopes and struggles. It is my own hope that the people in these stories can serve as a prism for us all to reflect upon what makes us who we are.

CONTEMPLATING DIS/ABILITY IN SCHOOLS AND SOCIETY: A LIFE IN EDUCATION

it turns out, the story of the unfolding relationship between special education and disability st... more it turns out, the story of the unfolding relationship between special education and disability studies in the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. With clarity and humor, as well as love and gratitude for his students and colleagues over the years, Connor weaves his memoir with honesty, compassion, and a keen intelligence. Contemplating Dis/Ability in Schools and Society will be treasured by teachers, professors, and others committed to making public education more humane and just for all students, their teachers, and society more broadly. " —SONIA NIETO, University of Massachusetts " In this autoethnographic memoir, Connor intimately reflects on thirty years as a (special) educator. Organizing the memoir around his career trajectory, he compellingly narrates a series of personal and professional experiences beginning with his life as a new teacher, and later as a doctoral student, college professor, and finally, department chairperson. Throughout the book, Connor acknowledges the tensions and conflicted feelings shared by many of us whose scholarly work is situated in Disability Studies in Education (DSE) but whose faculty and teaching responsibilities reside in special education programs. David J. Connor is a prolific writer and compelling scholar whose contributions to education, and DSE in particular, are significant due to the breadth of topics studied and the depth of scrutiny and analysis applied to each project. " —SUSAN L. GABEL, Wayne State University This book chronicles the professional life of a career-long, inclusive educator in New York City through eight different stages in special and general education. Developing a new approach to research as part of qualitative methodology, David J. Connor merges the academic genre of autoethnography with memoir to create a narrative that engages the reader through stories of personal experiences within the professional world that politicized him as an educator. After each chapter's narrative, a systematic analytic commentary follows that focuses on: teaching and learning in schools and universities; the influence of educational laws; specific models of disability and how influence educators and educational researchers; and educational structures and systems—including their impact on social, political, and cultural experiences of people with disabilities. This autoethnographic memoir documents, over three decades, the relationship between special and general education, the growth of the inclusion movement, and the challenge of special education as a discrete academic field. As part of a national group of critical special educators, Connor describes the growth of counter-theory through the inception and subsequent growth of DSE as a viable academic field, and the importance of rethinking human differences in new ways. DAVID J. CONNOR is professor of special education/learning disabilities at Hunter College.

A Child, A Family, A School, A Community: A Tale of Inclusive Education

This book is a true story of one family’s journey into inclusive education. Having previously bee... more This book is a true story of one family’s journey into inclusive education. Having previously been told that her son Benny had "failed to function" in two exclusionary special education classrooms in New York City, Berman’s family set off in search of a school where Benny would be accepted for who he was, while having the opportunity to grow and flourish academically, socially, and emotionally alongside his brother, Adam. Connor’s interest was piqued when Berman shared her desire to document the ways in which the new school community had supported Benny throughout the years. Together, they thought, surely other teachers, school and district level administrators, parents of children with and without disabilities, teacher educators, and student teachers, could learn from such a success story?
The result of their collaboration is this book in which Berman skillfully narrates episodes across time, describing ways in which children, teachers, educational assistants, parents, and a principal came to know Benny―developing numerous and often creative ways to include him in their classrooms, school, and community. Connor’s commentaries after each chapter link practice to theory, revealing ways in which much of what the school community seems to "do naturally" is, in fact, highly compatible with a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) approach to inclusive education. By illuminating multiple approaches that have worked to include Benny, the authors invite educators and families to envision further possibilities within their own contexts."

DisCrit: Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education

This groundbreaking volume brings together major figures in Disability Studies in Education (DSE)... more This groundbreaking volume brings together major figures in Disability Studies in Education (DSE) and
Critical Race Theory (CRT) to explore some of today’s most important issues in education. Scholars
examine the achievement/opportunity gaps from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as
the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and the school-to-prison pipeline. Chapters
also address school reform and the impact on students based on race, class, and dis/ability and the
capacity of law and policy to include (and exclude). Readers will discover how some students are included
(and excluded) within schools and society, why some citizens are afforded expanded (or limited)
opportunities in life, and who moves up in the world and who is trapped at the “bottom of the well.”

Practicing Disability Studies in Education, Acting Toward Social Change

Practicing Disability Studies in Education: Acting Toward Social Change celebrates the diversity ... more Practicing Disability Studies in Education: Acting Toward Social Change celebrates the diversity of contemporary work being developed by a range of scholars working within the field of Disability Studies in Education (DSE). The central idea of this volume is to share ways in which educators practice DSE in creative and eclectic ways in order to rethink, reframe, and reshape the current educational response to disability. Largely confined to the limitations of traditional educational discourse, this collective (and growing) group continues to push limits, break molds, assert the need for plurality, explore possibilities, move into the unknown, take chances, strategize to destabilize, and co-create new visions for what can be, instead of settling for what is. Much like jazz musicians who rely upon one another on stage to create music collectively, these featured scholars have been—and continue to—riff with one another in creating the growing body of DSE literature. In sum, this volume is DSE “at work.”

Ressignificando a Deficiência ["Rethinking Disability" in Portuguese translation]

Disability & Teaching

Disability and Teaching highlights issues of disability in K-12 schooling faced by teachers, who ... more Disability and Teaching highlights issues of disability in K-12 schooling faced by teachers, who are increasingly accountable for the achievement of all students regardless of the labels assigned to them. It is designed to engage prospective and practicing teachers in examining their personal theories and beliefs about disability and education.

Supporting Inclusive Classrooms: A Resource

Rethinking disability: A disability studies guide to inclusive practices.

Urban narratives: Portraits-in-progress--life at the intersections of learning disability, race, and social class.

Synopsis Urban Narratives foregrounds previously silenced voices of young people of color who ar... more Synopsis

Urban Narratives foregrounds previously silenced voices of young people of color who are labeled disabled. Overrepresented in special education classes, yet underrepresented in educational research, these students—the largest group within segregated special education classes—share their perceptions of the world and their place within it. Eight 'portraits in progress' consisting of their own words and framed by their poetry and drawings, reveal compelling insights about life inside and out of the American urban education system. The book uses an intersectional analysis to examine how power circulates in society throughout and among historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal domains, impacting social, academic, and economic opportunities for individuals, and expanding or circumscribing their worlds.

Reading resistance: Discourses of exclusion in desegregation and inclusion debates.

Synopsis Reading Resistance confronts longstanding exclusionary practices in U.S. public school... more Synopsis

Reading Resistance confronts longstanding exclusionary practices in U.S. public schooling. Beth A. Ferri and David J. Connor trace the interconnected histories of race and disability in the public imagination through their nuanced analysis of editorial pages and other public discourses, including political cartoons and eugenics posters. By uncovering how the concept of disability was used to resegregate students of color after the historic Brown decision, the authors argue that special education has played a role in undermining school desegregation. In its critical, interdisciplinary focus on the interlocking politics of race and disability, Reading Resistance offers contributions to educational research, theory, and policy.

Papers by David J Connor

Shaming, blaming, and reframing disability: depictions of Tourette syndrome and family dynamics within youth literature

English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 2025

Purpose-This study aims to present a complex analysis of the ways family dynamics are represented... more Purpose-This study aims to present a complex analysis of the ways family dynamics are represented in six books for youth that depict characters with Tourette Syndrome (TS). In particular, this study highlights how characters with TS navigate layers of shame for being misunderstood in school and society, and how family dynamics either reinforce or support characters from internalizing ableism and the attendant pain and shame associated with being perceived as "abnormal." Design/methodology/approach-The process for selecting YA books began with a wide search of recommended book lists available online and curated by the disability community, such as disabilityinkidlit. org and the Tourette Association of America. The authors sought books with at least one main or secondary character with TS. Using questions informed by critical content analysis (Short, 2016), the authors reads each book and generated notes and data charts on themes and patterns, which included how interactions between characters with TS and their parents and siblings were depicted. After the authors read each book, they met for 90 min to discuss their notes, expanded their data charts and generated themes to address their research question: How do characters with TS navigate pain within family dynamics? Findings-Findings support that all six books reveal progressive and problematic portrayals and messages about disability and human differences. Characters with TS in the books the authors studied experience family dynamics that are fraught with pain. Findings also demonstrate that characters with TS act with agency and resilience to resist shame within family dynamics, educating their parents and/or siblings in ways that are healing and restorative within the family dynamic. Originality/value-The analysis of the six books provides support for educators to build knowledge about how disability is constructed within children's and youth literature to pose critical questions about problematic portrayals and to build a future for families that is inclusive of disability and values progressive notions about human differences.

Disability, Race, and Language in a Time of Uncertainty: Preserving Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors

Multiple Voices: Disability, Race, and Language Intersections in Special Education, 2025

In this dialogic piece, we begin by contemplating Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's analogy of Mirror, Win... more In this dialogic piece, we begin by contemplating Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's analogy of Mirror, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors (1990) to (1) call attention to the political backlash against diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; (2) contemplate implications for the field of special and inclusive education, including critiquing traditional approaches to researching diversity; and (3) explore some possible ways to counter this backlash. We close by asking the question, should we simmer down, as some encourage, or raise Hell, as others suggest?

The Concept of Belonging and Other Areas of Interest in Disability Studies in Education

In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erkican (Eds). International Encyclopedia of Education (4h Edition) (pp. 238-248). Elsevier., 2022

The concept of belonging has always been central to researchers and educators guided by Disabilit... more The concept of belonging has always been central to researchers and educators guided by Disability Studies in Education (DSE) to create inclusive environments within schools, colleges, and universities. In retrospect, while the importance of belonging has been implicit in our work-assumed to be an intrinsic belief-it has not always been explicitly stated. Recently, some DSE scholars have argued the value of explicitly centering belonging as an organizational principle for inclusive practices, underpinning the ideal of creating classroom spaces where all students feel they "fit in." In addition to scholarly engagement around belonging, other areas of interest also developed within DSE, forging its expansion in multiple directions that often connect and overlap, symbolizing a field that continues to engage us, resulting in both individual and professional growth. Beginning with belonging, this chapter focuses on selected areas of interest within contemporary DSE that draw from numerous forms of disability activism, popular non-fiction, interdisciplinary critical collaborations, emergent theories, cultural developments, and international interests. In considering all of these areas simultaneously, I illuminate ways in which they support the broad notion of individuals belonging in society, with a particular focus on belonging in inclusive classrooms. [penultimate draft in Word]