
36. Creating Belonging, Connection, and Community with Dr. Leah Kelley
11/25/23 • 29 min
In this episode, Diana has a conversation with Dr. Leah Kelley, author of The Person Who Arrives: Connecting Disability Studies and Educational Practice for Teachers, Parents, and Others. They discuss the importance of creating belonging, community, and connection in the classroom, understanding the breadth of diversity when it comes to inclusion, and how the disability experience intersects with so many other lived experiences that are important to bring to the table.
Links Mentioned or Related
Stay Connected with Diana
Diana's Website, including blog
Free Resource - 5 Keys to Going Beyond Awareness
Free Resource - How to Talk with Kids about Disability
Beyond Awareness: Bringing Disability into Diversity in K-12 Schools & Communities - Diana's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights - Diana's Children's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights Thematic Unit/ Disability History Lesson Plans
"Beyond Awareness" Digital Course
Beyond Awareness Facebook Page
Beyond Awareness Pullover Hoodie
Beyond Awareness Raglan Baseball T-Shirt
Beyond Awareness Journal/Notebook
Diana's Teachers Pay Teachers Store - Disability as Diversity
Credits and Image Description
Intro and outro music courtesy of Emmanuel Castro.
Podcast cover photo by Rachel Schlesinger Photography.
Podcast cover image description: Black and white photograph of Diana, a Spanish-American woman with long, wavy, brown hair. She is wearing a flowy, white blouse and smiles at camera as she leans against wooden building. Photo is colorfully framed with gold and orange rays of seeming sunshine on top half, and with solid sage green color on bottom half. Text reads "Beyond Awareness: Disability Awareness That Matters, Diana Pastora Carson, M.Ed."
In this episode, Diana has a conversation with Dr. Leah Kelley, author of The Person Who Arrives: Connecting Disability Studies and Educational Practice for Teachers, Parents, and Others. They discuss the importance of creating belonging, community, and connection in the classroom, understanding the breadth of diversity when it comes to inclusion, and how the disability experience intersects with so many other lived experiences that are important to bring to the table.
Links Mentioned or Related
Stay Connected with Diana
Diana's Website, including blog
Free Resource - 5 Keys to Going Beyond Awareness
Free Resource - How to Talk with Kids about Disability
Beyond Awareness: Bringing Disability into Diversity in K-12 Schools & Communities - Diana's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights - Diana's Children's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights Thematic Unit/ Disability History Lesson Plans
"Beyond Awareness" Digital Course
Beyond Awareness Facebook Page
Beyond Awareness Pullover Hoodie
Beyond Awareness Raglan Baseball T-Shirt
Beyond Awareness Journal/Notebook
Diana's Teachers Pay Teachers Store - Disability as Diversity
Credits and Image Description
Intro and outro music courtesy of Emmanuel Castro.
Podcast cover photo by Rachel Schlesinger Photography.
Podcast cover image description: Black and white photograph of Diana, a Spanish-American woman with long, wavy, brown hair. She is wearing a flowy, white blouse and smiles at camera as she leans against wooden building. Photo is colorfully framed with gold and orange rays of seeming sunshine on top half, and with solid sage green color on bottom half. Text reads "Beyond Awareness: Disability Awareness That Matters, Diana Pastora Carson, M.Ed."
Previous Episode

35. Mainstreaming, Integration, Inclusion & Belonging with Dr. Shelley Moore
In this episode, Diana has a conversation with Dr. Shelley Moore. Shelley is a Canadian educator and an expert on special education who also has taught in the U.S. She is the author of One Without the Other, which I've read a couple times, as well as her upcoming book, All for One, which I look forward to reading. Shelly is a teacher researcher, YouTuber and extraordinary speaker. She advocates for inclusive education and seeks to reform iep programs to better suit the needs of individual students. Shelley is so well-informed as it relates to disability diversity and educational policies related to students with disabilities, both in the US and in Canada. And she's brilliant and talented and funny, and really just a good human. Shelley and I discussed the concept of inclusion and she distinguished between mainstreaming, integration, and inclusion with a real sense of belonging in one's community. She compares the intent of LRE (least restrictive environment) with what we have been doing in public education, as well as individuals with disabilities and families as the intended beneficiaries of a continuum of services. Shelley also shares on a personal level of what her "why" is, and some fun rapid-fire questions at the end of the interview. I hope you'll enjoy this episode as much as I did!
Links Mentioned or Related
All for One Book
Herb Lovett - Learning to Listen Book
Stay Connected with Diana
Diana's Website, including blog
Free Resource - 5 Keys to Going Beyond Awareness
Free Resource - How to Talk with Kids about Disability
Beyond Awareness: Bringing Disability into Diversity in K-12 Schools & Communities - Diana's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights - Diana's Children's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights Thematic Unit/ Disability History Lesson Plans
"Beyond Awareness" Digital Course
Beyond Awareness Facebook Page
Beyond Awareness Pullover Hoodie
Beyond Awareness Raglan Baseball T-Shirt
Beyond Awareness Journal/Notebook
Diana's Teachers Pay Teachers Store - Disability as Diversity
Credits and Image Description
Intro and outro...
Next Episode

37. My Disability Awareness "Why"
In this episode, Diana discusses the correlation between real life situations that she and other individuals and their family members find themselves in due to lack of societal commitment to their well-being, and the social paradigm focus of going Beyond Awareness vs. traditional disability awareness. She concludes with encouragement to listeners to take steps toward going Beyond Awareness so that we can begin making progress toward access to well-being for all.
Stay Connected with Diana
Diana's Website, including blog
Free Resource - 5 Keys to Going Beyond Awareness
Free Resource - How to Talk with Kids about Disability
Beyond Awareness: Bringing Disability into Diversity in K-12 Schools & Communities - Diana's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights - Diana's Children's Book
Ed Roberts: Champion of Disability Rights Thematic Unit/ Disability History Lesson Plans
"Beyond Awareness" Digital Course
Beyond Awareness Facebook Page
Beyond Awareness Pullover Hoodie
Beyond Awareness Raglan Baseball T-Shirt
Beyond Awareness Journal/Notebook
Diana's Teachers Pay Teachers Store - Disability as Diversity
Credits and Image Description
Intro and outro music courtesy of Emmanuel Castro.
Podcast cover photo by Rachel Schlesinger Photography.
Podcast cover image description: Black and white photograph of Diana, a Spanish-American woman with long, wavy, brown hair. She is wearing a flowy, white blouse and smiles at camera as she leans against wooden building. Photo is colorfully framed with gold and orange rays of seeming sunshine on top half, and with solid sage green color on bottom half. Text reads "Beyond Awareness: Disability Awareness That Matters, Diana Pastora Carson, M.Ed."
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Featured in these lists
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/beyond-awareness-disability-awareness-that-matters-268510/36-creating-belonging-connection-and-community-with-dr-leah-kelley-37690458"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to 36. creating belonging, connection, and community with dr. leah kelley on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy