DEC at the Intersection: Re-Imagining Inclusion, Equity, and Social Justice in EI/ECSE

By its very nature, the field of early intervention and early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) should be grounded in social justice, with an ongoing commitment to the pursuit of equity for young children with disabilities and their families. However, we must reckon with the knowledge that our field is steeped in a deficit model of disability and centers norms based on White, monolingual, non-disabled, and middle-class children and families. As a field, we have work to do to ensure that diversity is celebrated and affirmed, and that each and every child has access to inclusive settings and experiences a sense of belonging in all spaces. It is important to recognize that although the fight for inclusion, equity, and social justice has perhaps gained prominence in the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC) in the last few years, the work is not new. There is a long genealogy of critical early childhood scholarship mostly lead by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) scholars and activists (e.g., anti-racist, anti-ableist) that has not been centered in the EI/ECSE dominant scholarship and practice.