Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Sep 2014 Open Access

Interdependency as an Ethic for Accessible Intellectual Publics

Julie Jung

Abstract

An accessible society,” crip theorist Robert McRuer argues, “is not one simply with ramps and Braille signs on ‘public’ buildings, but one in which our ways of relating to, and depending on, each other have been reconfigured” (94). Using McRuer’s definition as a starting point, in this article I seek to work toward creating a more accessible society of teacher-scholars by exploring interdependency as an ethic for intellectual work. Toward this end, I will first argue that creating such a public requires a reconceptualization of the term “pedagogy,” one that moves beyond the boundaries of the classroom such that learning emerges as a dynamic process of recognition and interrelation. I will then review the concepts of independence, dependence, and interdependence as they have been taken up in disability studies and conclude by using these meanings to map out how interrelations on multiple levels make our intellectual work possible.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2014-09-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv14i1pp101-120
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Open Access
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Topics
writing pedagogy teacher development disability studies
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