Speculative Visions for the Education of Learners at the Intersections of Disability and Language

Abstract

This special issue interrogates enduring inequities at the intersections of language and disability by advancing speculative approaches as historically grounded, future-oriented modes of inquiry. Moving beyond technical refinements that leave dominant systems and deficit logics intact, the collection foregrounds historical epistemology, sociocultural imagination, and collective agency as foundations for educational transformation. Across five articles, an interview, and a commentary, contributors examine how multilingual learners with and without disabilities, families, educators, and researchers disrupt monolingual and ableist assumptions, reframe educational problems, and design alternative tools, practices, and learning ecologies. Collectively, the issue positions speculation not as abstract futurism but as an ethical, epistemological, and methodological project that exposes historically sedimented contradictions, expands knowledge and possibility, and constructs more humanizing and expansive educational futures grounded in human dignity and collective flourishing.