Editor’s Voice

JUDY K. C. BENTLEY

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Social Advocacy and Systems Change. Volume 1 (1) has evolved from the vision, faith, persistence, labor, and support of our authors, reviewers, web designers and Editorial Board members—all of whom have recognized and responded to a need for voice and visibility for traditionally marginalized individuals, identities, ideas, and cultures.

Since I presented the original proposal for this journal, I have reflected deeply upon the responsibility and privilege of publication. I have frequently been asked, and I have asked myself, these questions: How do you mix peer-reviewed research and journalism? How do you serve such varied constituencies—interdisciplinary scholars, students, children, and parents? The answers are grounded in the Aims and Scope of Social Advocacy and Systems Change.

This journal addresses issues related to social justice, via the systemic transformation of socially constructed systems. Original research and commentary is expected to trouble the discourse of entrenched stereotypes and privileged paradigms. And so it does.

In this issue, Mecke Nagel and Lynn Olcott speak of prison and prisoners—the racial implications of the criminal justice system, and the socially constructed disability of incarceration. Nagel calls for restorative justice and the abolition of the prison system.

Janet Duncan issues a call to action for international human rights for persons with disabilities. Bill Gaventa reviews a new book by David Roche, who finds his voice as a person with a disability through humor, and in doing so, builds connections with all who struggle to accept themselves, find their own voices, and make their own spiritual journeys.

Ann Burns Thomas challenges students in urban schools to question the ways that certain “laws of life” such as kindness, courage, respect, love, and perseverance can be critiqued through a lens of social and political discrimination. Danielle Joy Davis, and a group of future school leaders from the University of Texas at Arlington, look at the challenges of urban schooling through a lens of social inequity, and probe the effectiveness of advocacy for disadvantaged groups.

Micki Mudge and Angela Batsford want us to know what it has been like for them as students with disabilities in “special” education and beyond. Malia Brown asserts the importance of loving one’s students as a mandatory ingredient in effective pedagogy. A class of Inclusive Special Education majors offers a collaborative poem about how they used to be, and how they are now. And Sara Beshers troubles the discourse of parental advocacy.

With profound respect for the voices herein, I present Volume 1, Issue 1 of Social Advocacy and Systems Change. And please note: We are now accepting submissions for the Fall/Winter issue!


Judy K. C. Bentley holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree from Southern Methodist University, a Master’s degree in Special Education/Reading Education from Southwest Texas State University, and a Doctoral degree in Education/School Improvement from Texas State University. Her research interests include Symbolic Inclusion, children labeled with “severe/multiple disabilities” as architects of systemic, inclusive education reform, and maximizing the success of students with disabilities in postsecondary education.

 

Editorial Board

Nancy Aumann
Associate Provost, Academic Affairs
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Raymond Collings
Department of Psychology
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Andrew Fitzgibbon
Department of Philosophy
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Susan Gabel
Department of Learning and Teaching
National College of Education
National-Louis University
Chicago, Illinois

Chulsub Lew
EPIK Manager
Gyeongbuk Office of Education
Korea

Missy Morton
Coordinator, School of Educational
Studies and Human Development
University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand

Mechhthild Nagel
Department of Philosophy
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Frances A. Pizzola
Access to Independence
Of Cortland County, Inc.
Cortland, New York

Robin M. Smith
State University of New York
College at New Paltz

Ann Burns Thomas
Coordinator, Cortland Urban
Recruitment of Educators (CURE)
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Christine L. Widdall
Instructional Materials Design Specialist
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Lorraine Melita
Senior Assistant Librarian
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Web Designers

Loren Leonard
State University of New York
College at Cortland

Steve Marstall
State University of New York
College at Cortland