Isabelle Kluge, a 2024 Antioch graduate of the EdD in Educational and Professional Practice, has published her dissertation, Disability in Education from a Neurodiversity Standpoint: A Multi-Article Dissertation.
As an inclusive, neurodiversity-affirming educator, Kluge conducted research examining education that included the trends in school systems, juvenile justice systems, and cultural/media systems. The aim of the research was to address the disproportionately targeted failure of students with disabilities from a neurodiversity standpoint.
Kluge’s research shows that current education systems do not practice freedom for all learners but rather a reproductive practice that teaches forms of group-based privilege that result in the disproportionate outcome of school failure, oppression, and incarceration for students with disabilities.
As a board-certified mental health coach, spiritual formation pastor, and middle school and high school English teacher, Kluge wants to create liberatory learning spaces for neurodiverse students of all races. To do this, educators need to challenge patriarchal ideas of White supremacy, neurotypical superiority, and a standardized one-size-fits-all design approach to learning. Creating neuro-inclusive learning spaces requires a paradigm shift to include a broader understanding of forms of human diversity and to foster more positive ways of thinking about human differences within spaces of learning and teaching.
