Informed by critical disability studies and disability justice, this article describes the reflections of two university researchers co-researching with self-advocates (individuals with intellectual disability), theatre artists, researchers, and a community living society to create social justice disability theatre as critical participatory research (CPAR), demonstrating how disability theatre can contribute to and advance inclusive research practice. Disability justice-informed theatre as CPAR has direct relevance to people with intellectual disabilities; offers a platform where self-advocates’ diverse ways to communicate and be in the world are honoured and taken up as resources to the research and community; and can generate mentorship opportunities for self-advocates to learn, practice, and develop research skills. Significances include showing how the theatre creation process (devising, developing, and refining scenes) is research in itself and how tensions are recognized as sites of possibility. Future research should explore how increasing pathways to communication, co-creation of KT strategies, and protocols for power sharing and problem solving within disability theatre as CPAR impact the roles, outcomes, and experiences of disabled and non-disabled researchers and audience members.

Indigenous communities and students have been marginalized by colonial practices, disproportionally referred to special education programs, and encounter systematic prejudice and discrimination in education systems that lack respect for their ways of knowing and being. To disrupt hierarchical practices and structures that enact a hidden curriculum of privilege and racism, reconciliation and educational and system transformation need to work in tandem. Drawing on critical case study guided by Indigenous Storywork principles, we are researching how Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) can support educators and Indigenous community partners’ collaboration to decentre colonizing education practices. Analysis of preliminary data offers a window into the potential and complexity of engaging in decolonizing work that asks educators to unpack their role in reconciliation efforts and unlearn much of what they believed to be ethical practice. Findings include: participants awakening to structural inequities and racism; white/settler participants engaging with difficult knowledge; educators emphasizing their need for external resources to decolonize their practice; and a delicate balance between educators feeling challenged, feeling hopeful, and recognizing the distance yet to be travelled. This study demonstrates that collaboration with Indigenous community partners within education change networks (ECNs) holds potential to support pedagogical transformation and ultimately redefine student success.