“Checking My Needs at the Door:” White Saviorism and Ableism in Educators’ Talk About Working Conditions

Teachers work, teach, and learn in complex educational systems that have upheld white, colonial, and nondisabled norms. Shaped by this dominant culture, special educators often engage in work that strives to “save,” “fix,” or assimilate students who deviate from these norms. Using white saviorism and ableism as a conceptual framework, this critical qualitative analysis examined how white nondisabled special educators teaching in self-contained classrooms from one school district discussed their working conditions and how they reproduced and/or resisted white savior and ableist narratives. Working in contexts that normalized overwork and sacrifice, we found participants often oscillated between accepting and resisting these conditions. Further, invested in white savior logics, they upheld oppressive perspectives related to teaching and learning. Participants pitted people's needs against one another and exceptionalized teachers and students in special education when trying to make sense of these working conditions.