De-centering the Myth of Normalcy in Education: A Critique of Inclusionary Policies in Education through Disability Studies

The intention of this paper is to inhabit a mode of exploration that foregrounds the hopeful possibility that teaching and learning might be otherwise than the continued perpetuation of hierarchies of exclusion. In focusing on this hopeful possibility, this paper focuses on two related questions. First, how does the story of normalcy continue to maintain and sustain its grip on education through inclusionary policies and practices? Second, what are the effects of this domineering narrative upon the lives of children with disabilities in our public schools? Numerous scholars in the field of disability studies with a wide array of backgrounds and research interests have offered considerable insight into how education works very hard to represent itself as a smooth road of progress and success. In part, this paper will offer a review of the literature within disability studies. The work of scholars such as Baker (2002, 2015), Nirmala Erevelles (2000, 2011, 2013) and Roger Slee (2008, 2013), who offer insights into the systemic pervasiveness of exclusionary practices in schools, will be examined as a method of exploring the tactics of the hegemonic narrative of normalcy. This paper will also offer a literature review of the work of disability studies scholars such as Annamma (2014), Hodge and Runswick-Cole (2013) and Connor (2009), who offer insights into the harm that maintaining normalcy continues to perpetuate through narratives from the perspective of disabled youth and children. In examining how hierarchies of exclusion manage to be continually reformed from the varying perspectives of these scholars, my hope is to discuss how, despite appearances to the contrary, possibilities remain for undoing the grip of normal by considering the ways in which disability studies contributes to our understanding of teaching and learning with and through differences.Keywords: inclusion, normalcy, disability, narrative, educationDécentrer le mythe de la normalité dans l'éducation: Une critique des politiques d'inclusion dans l'éducation à travers les études sur le handicap RésuméL'intention de cet article est d'habiter un mode d'exploration qui met en avant la possibilité d'espoir que l'enseignement et l'apprentissage pourraient être autrement que la perpétuation des hiérarchies d'exclusion. En mettant l'accent sur cette possibilité d'espoir, ce document se concentre sur deux questions connexes. Premièrement, comment l'histoire de la normalité continue-t-elle à maintenir et à soutenir son emprise sur l'éducation à travers des politiques et des pratiques d'inclusion? Deuxièmement, quels sont les effets de ce récit dominateur sur la vie des enfants handicapés dans nos écoles publiques.  De nombreux chercheurs dans le domaine des études sur le handicap avec un large éventail des milieux et d'intérêts de recherche ont offert un aperçu considérable de la façon dont le travail de chercheurs comme Baker (2002, 2015), Nirmala Erevelles (2000, 2011, 2013) et Roger Slee (2008, 2013), qui offre un aperçu de l'omniprésence systémique des pratiques d'exclusion dans les écoles, sera examiné comme une méthode d'explorer la tactique du récit hégémonique de la normalité.  Cet article offrira également une revue de la littérature sur le travail des spécialistes des études sur le handicap comme Annamma (2014), Hodge et Runswick-Cole (2013) et Connor (2009), qui donnent un aperçu du mal que le maintien de la normalité continue de perpétuer du point de vue des enfants et des jeunes handicapés. En examinant comment les hiérarchies de l'exclusion peuvent être continuellement réformées à partir des perspectives variées de ces chercheurs, mon espoir est de discuter comment, malgré les apparences du contraire, des possibilités demeurent pour défaire l'emprise du normal en considérant comment les études sur le handicap contribuent à notre compréhension de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage avec et à travers les différences.Mots clefsInclusion; normalité; handicap; récit; éducatio

Could Immunophenotype Guide Molecular Analysis in Patients with Myeloid Malignancies?

Objective: Immunophenotype has been correlated with molecular aberrations in several studies. The aim of this study was the discovery of immunophenotypic features related to mutations in AML and MDS patients connected to prognostic factors. Moreover, an effort to evaluate a method for the detection of the most common NPM1 mutations of exon12 and Internal Tandem Duplications (ITD) mutations of FLT3 gene by flow cytometry was performed. Method: Patients with de novo myeloid neoplasms [ AML and MDS (AML-M3 patients were excluded)] were included. FLT3/ITD/TKD and NPM1 mutations were detected by PCR and fragment analysis. The immunophenotypic analysis was performed by multi-dimensional flow cytometry (FC) with a standardized panel of monoclonal antibodies on peripheral blood or bone marrow samples. Nucleophosmin Antibody and CD135 were used for the mutations immunophenotypic detection. Results: NPM1 and/or FLT3 mutations correlated with low or no expression of more immature cells markers such as CD34, CD117, HLADR, as well as higher expression of more mature markers such as CD11b. The higher expression of CD33 should be mentioned as well. The presence of NPM1mut and FLT3/ITD does not seem to be detectable by FC at least using these two monoclonal antibodies. The presence of CD7 aberrant lymphoid marker’s expression was associated with FLT3mut, NPM1wt genotype. CD56 or CD2 positivity was found only in patients’ samples negative for NPM1 and/or FLT3 mutations. Conclusions: Certain immunophenotype findings including the presence of aberrant lymphoid markers may be indicative of the presence of mutations in NPM1 and FLT3 linked to prognosis

The effect of immunomodulators on the immunogenicity of TNF-blocking therapeutic monoclonal antibodies: a review

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized the treatment of various inflammatory diseases. Immunogenicity against these antibodies has been shown to be clinically important: it is associated with shorter response duration because of diminishing concentrations in the blood and with infusion reactions. Concomitant immunomodulators in the form of methotrexate or azathioprine reduced the immunogenicity of therapeutic antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn disease, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The occurrence of adverse events does not increase when immunomodulators are added to therapeutic antibodies. The mechanism whereby methotrexate and azathioprine influence immunogenicity remains unclear. Evidence-based consensus on prescribing concomitant immunomodulators is needed

Effectiveness of third-class biologic treatment in crohn’s disease : A multi-center retrospective cohort study

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Background: Multiple studies have described the effectiveness of ustekinumab (UST) and vedolizumab (VDZ) in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) failing anti-Tumor necrosis factors (TNFs); however, the effectiveness of VDZ or UST as a third-class biologic has not yet been described. Aims and Methods: In this retrospective multicenter cohort study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of VDZ and UST as a third-class biologic in patients with CD. Results: Two-hundred and four patients were included; 156/204 (76%) patients received VDZ as a second-and UST as a third-class therapy (group A); the remaining 48/204 (24%) patients received UST as a second-and VDZ as a third-class therapy (group B). At week 16–22, 87/156 (55.5%) patients and 27/48 (56.2%) in groups A and B, respectively, responded to treatment (p = 0.9); 41/156 (26.2%) and 15/48 (31.2%) were in clinical remission (p = 0.5). At week 52; 89/103 (86%) patients and 25/29 (86.2%) of the patients with available data had responded to third-class treatment in groups A and B, respectively (p = 0.9); 31/103 (30%) and 47/29 (24.1%) were in clinical remission (p = 0.5). Conclusion: Third-class biological therapy was effective in more than half of the patients with CD. No differences in effectiveness were detected between the use of VDZ and UST as a third-class agent.Peer reviewe

Effectiveness of third-class biologic treatment in Crohn's disease : a multi-center retrospective cohort study

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Disabling Relationships: Exploring Encounters in Segregated Special Needs Classrooms

This work addresses how encounters between teachers, students and the researcher within segregated special needs classrooms both perpetuate and resist the normalizing narrative of schooling. In this study, I aim to demonstrate how subjectivities, onto-epistemologies and varying embodiments impress upon one another in ways that both shape and refuse to shape our relationships. My participatory classroom exploration took place during 15 weekly visits (Fall 2017) in a Primary Learning Disability (LD) class and a Primary Mild Intellectual Delay (MID) class at “Up North Public School.” Guided by disability studies, post-structural feminisms decolonial studies as well as postcolonial studies, I make a case for a methodology I refer to in this study as reading and being read in disabling ways. The intent here is to explore inhabiting our interpretive relationships with each other differently amidst disability through telling stories embedded in everyday classroom moments between teachers and students. In Part I of this study, I outline the theoretical and methodological orientations that allowed for my reflexive relations to my participant observations within two segregated special education classrooms. Part II addresses the ‘who’ (subjectivities), Part III addresses the ‘what’ (knowledges both vocal and silent), and Part IV addresses the ‘where’ (embodied and contextualized relations). By contending that disability impresses in ways that continue to challenge and transform, my study contributes to a much-needed critical engagement regarding what it means to teach and learn as we reimagine our conception of becoming human amidst disability.Ph.D

Cripping the Story of Overcoming: An Analysis of the Discourses and Practices of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)

This paper applies crip theory (McRuer, 2006, 2018) as well as other key conceptual tools from disabled childhood studies (Runswick-Cole et al., 2018) and disability studies in education (Cousik & Maconochie, 2017) as a tactic intended to question and resist the story of overcoming as it manifests itself within the discourses and practices of self-regulation in early learning classrooms. This paper offers a brief overview of the range of self-regulation strategies enacted within educational settings in Ontario, Canada, that purport to support young children in overcoming themselves on their way to normalcy. This paper also engages in crip theory as a strategy to both question and disrupt the taken for granted assumption that self-regulation entails a return towards or a sustaining of the efficient and productive neoliberal individual in school systems. Finally, this paper considers how we might not only invite but embrace the disruptions that occur when embodied differences refuse to be overcome by demands to self-regulate. Ultimately, a key aim of this paper is to resist how discourses and practices of self-regulation in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) establish the overcoming narrative as a means to cure, fix or exclude embodied differences while contemplating the vibrant possibilities embedded within learning with and from disabled childhoods