ABSTRACT
The purpose of this essay is to identify and interrogate listening practices, which can restrict and facilitate educators’ capacity to authentically care for neurodiverse students and their families. We reconceptualize listening as integral to consciousness formation by unveiling our own listening experiences as parents and collaborative activists. Conscious listening opens listeners to the exploration of divergent realities, and marks a subversive shift in consciousness- raising. Through counter-narrative methods, we describe our experiences related to listening and consciousness formation in the context of meetings with educators about children’s placements, goals, and transitions. Naming common themes across our diverse narratives helped us ascertain the unique modes of listening required for authentic caring, relational enactment, and continually sustained transformations in the face of unfavorable listening environments and inclusive education policy.
