Disability and Equity in Education Commons^™

Family Member Experiences With Augmentative And Alternative Communication Systems Used By Nonspeaking Autistic Individuals, Christina M. Wotton

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

Nonspeaking autistic individuals who have no way to communicate cannot share their thoughts, dreams, or desires. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the experiences of family members of nonspeaking autistic individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. This study documented family members’ experiences of identifying, learning, and implementing two types of AAC: Rapid Prompting Method and Spelling to Communicate. Through one-on-one interviews, five participants shared their lived experiences. Three themes emerged from the data. The first theme was an increase in well-being for the entire family. All five participants described transformations and improvements in …

Parents Of Students On The Autism Spectrum Call For Social And Academic Inclusive Practices, Stephanie C. Holmes

Tapestry: Journal of Research in Education

Inclusive education practices must incorporate both social and academic inclusion. Before 1975, students with various disabilities did not have the same access to public education as their nondisabled or neuro-typically developing peers. With the passing of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, it was mandated that all schools that receive federal funds must provide equal access to education as a right to students with any physical, behavioral, or mental handicaps. While the mandates have broadened throughout the years, merely having a diagnosis of Autism does not guarantee resources or supports to the student unless there are also academic concerns. …

Educator Cultural Proficiency Insight Tool: As We Know Better, We Can Do Better!, Queinnise Miller

Tapestry: Journal of Research in Education

All across the U.S. student populations are evolving to reflect the increase in diversity. These students are culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse in nature (CLED). Apart from the health field, cultural competence has not been widely assessed in the education field. A purposeful sample of 362 K-12 teachers, who served 50% or more of CLED students, were administered the Educator Cultural Proficiency Insight Tool (ECPIT). The purpose of this research was two-fold: (a) develop and validate the ECPIT and (b) examine the demographic differences regarding levels of cultural proficiency of current educators. Findings indicated that the ECPIT was a valid …

Why Teachers Feel Unprepared To Address The Social And Emotional Needs Of Students With Dyslexia, Darlene Breaux

Tapestry: Journal of Research in Education

Students with dyslexia simultaneously struggle with both literacy acquisition and poor self-esteem and undergo social-emotional learning difficulties. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore elementary general education teachers’ perceptions regarding the dyslexia training they received for addressing the social and emotional learning (SEL) needs of children with dyslexia. The conceptual framework guiding this study was the five core competencies for SEL developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. The researcher used a qualitative description research design involving semi structured interviews. The population included 10 elementary general education teachers who taught in first through fourth-grade …

Beyond Certification: Innovative Strategies To Tackle The Teacher Shortage, Abbigail Lp Morris

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

This article challenges educational leaders to look beyond alternative routes for teaching certification and more towards an increased collaboration between districts and universities to help alleviate the teacher shortage issue in Kentucky. It specifically highlights the works of Omaha Public School District and the University of Nebraska Omaha as a model for proactive teacher pipeline.

Improving Peer-To-Peer Learning For Students With Extensive Support Needs In Inclusive Classrooms, Zachary Michael Deets

Dissertations and Theses

Inclusive learning opportunities lead to better outcomes for students with extensive support needs (ESN). In the absence of targeted intervention, however, students with ESN are unlikely to interact meaningfully with their peers or the general education curriculum. The literature describes evidence-based strategies in support of the meaningful inclusion of students with ESN in inclusive classrooms, including the use of technology to mediate learning experiences and nondisabled peers as learning "interventionists." This dissertation introduces an intervention package, Technology-Assisted Peer-Mediated Academic Support (TAPMAS), incorporating Technology-Aided Instruction and Intervention (TAII) and Peer-Based Instruction and Intervention (PBII), as a model of how educators may …

Improving Communication Access With Deaf People Through Nursing Simulation: A Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, Jamie L. Mccartney Ph.D., Tracy Gidden, Jennifer Biggs, Kathy Geething, Karl Kosko Ph.D.

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Baccalaureate nursing and sign language interpreting students participated in a pediatric discharge simulation with a deaf person playing the role of the baby’s parent. At the conclusion of the simulation, participants were emailed a consent letter and a link to a 17-item questionnaire developed by the authors. Responses were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, whereby nonparametric statistics were calculated to examine Likert-scale items. A Mann-Whitney test statistic was calculated, instead of an independent samples t-test, given the smaller sample in the current study (n = 26). A question was posed to participants that evaluated their self-perception of the effectiveness of …

“Handicap Removed”: An Alternative Path To The Social Model, Craig M. Rustici

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

This article identifies an expression of a social model of disability in a 1966 film promoting Hofstra University’s Program for the Higher Education of the Handicapped and traces that model back to books published by the pioneering rehabilitation physician Henry H. Kessler in 1935 and 1947, decades before the UPIAS (Union of the Physically Impaired against Segregation) Fundamental Principles of Disability (1976). In light of Kessler’s articulation of social and minority models, identification of contrasting religious, charity and medical models, and discussion of disability stigma, this article reassesses Ruth O’Brien’s critique, in Crippled Justice (2001), of Kessler and the twentieth-century …

Disability, Race, And Origin Intersectionality In The Doctoral Program: Ableism In Higher Education, Theodoto W. Ressa, Scot Danforth

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper explores the experiences of a doctoral disabled student at a university to examine how ableist structures in graduate programs affect access to higher education and post-degree outcomes. Guided by the DisCrit framework and autoethnography approach, the article illuminates systems and processes that disadvantage graduate disabled students. Through intersectional analyses of disability, race, and origin, the article makes visible manifestations of disability microaggressions and systemic ableism, racism, and xenophobia. It interrogates the perpetuation and normalization of academic transgressions, including exclusionary practices that degrade and oppress graduate disabled students and hinder them from seeking success. Finally, the argument is made …

Neurodivergent College Students And Therapy Dogs In Higher Education, Georgia Jean Majka

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine neurodivergent students in higher education and their experience with The Shreiber Family Pet Therapy Program at Rowan University to investigate whether therapy dogs reduce anxiety levels and provide relaxation. In addition, this study provides recommendations for The Shreiber Family Pet Therapy program at Rowan University to promote the program and its purpose on campus. These resources are important when discussing the neurodivergent student population in higher education, which this research study discusses, based on previous research and the results found from this quantitative approach. This study also makes recommendations for Rowan University …

Make Mine Melody: Building Beloved Community In Bibliography Using Mad Citation Practice, Sarah Madoka Currie

Criticism

Bibliography can be reconstructed to privilege the imaginaries of radicals that are “lesser known.” The dis-visibilizing of marginalized neurodiverse scholars and theorycrafters has much in common with the institutionalization approaches that constrict and model obstructed life for neurodivergent bodyminds. In a proposal for mad citation practice, a series of hopeful strategies for nonretrofitted inclusivity and authorial diversity are constructed for the reader instead, which bear similarities to feminist and disabled care practices: explicit permission-setting, naming ontology, lived or living experience validity, commentary or subscript authorization, visibilized quotation selection, draft approval, and cocollaborator approvals all form the basis of a radically …

Examining Strategic Supports For Students With Executive Dysfunction Transitioning To Postsecondary Education: A Qualitative Study, Desiree Rutter

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to provide a voice and perspective of the lived experiences of participants with executive function deficits and develop an understanding of its effect on their transition to a four-year university. The following research question guided the study: What support do students with executive function deficits transitioning to post-secondary education need to be successful? The problem addressed in the study was determining what support students with executive function deficits need for a successful transition to postsecondary education. The phenomenological qualitative study utilized a retrospective lens to interview students who were 18 years or …

Minoritized Graduate Students’ Recommendations To Communication Sciences And Disorders Programs To Improve Inclusion Of Minoritized Students, Teresa M. Roberts

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Minoritized students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) programs have unique insights into inclusion and diversity initiatives based on their lived experiences. In this study, the researcher examined and analyzed recommendations that minorized CSD graduate students provided to programs to increase inclusion. The researcher identified themes within the recommendations using discourse analysis to analyze how students positioned themselves and faculty in relationship to diversity and inclusion. A total of 104 minoritized CSD graduate students across 28 states completed a survey that included demographic information and a writing prompt for recommendations to programs. The study found that students valued broad and …

Benefits Of Having A Disability Cultural Center At Cal Poly, Chau Nguyen

Political Science

All colleges and universities in the United States are legally required to accommodate their students with disabilities. However, many schools do not support their disabled student body in ways that go beyond what they are legally required to provide under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Though every university and college in the United States has a dedicated ADA compliance office, students with disabilities still express that their holistic needs are unmet and that they feel unsupported by their schools. Establishing Disability Cultural Programs and Centers is one method that colleges and universities …

Student Proficiency On High School Math Assessments And Their Relation To College And University Math Readiness, Tiffany Robinson

Dissertations

Data indicate that a significant number of first-year college students were inadequately prepared in high school to complete university-level mathematics courses. The purpose of this study is to evaluate student proficiency on high school mathematics assessments and their relation to student preparedness for university-level mathematics courses. The context of my study is a cohort of diverse, high school senior students in one state in the United States who have shown proficiency on mathematics assessments. The methodology I used was a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data, comprised of student and faculty index surveys at the high school and university level …

The Efficacy Of Social And Emotional Learning For High School Students With Cognitive Disabilities, The Experiential Approach, Lawanda Fox

Dissertations

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential to all students' education across all grade levels. However, what does that look like at different developmental stages, and how can SEL best support learning and development for high school students with cognitive disabilities? Young people are becoming more aware of their identities and values in high school. They build upon many social and emotional competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) developed throughout elementary and middle school. However, students with cognitive disabilities are more challenged than their peers without disabilities to accomplish these competencies. This study aims to identify …

The Vigor Of Creative Materialism: Making The Hidden Stories Of Underrepresented Engineering Students Visible, Katherine A. Robert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of initiatives, engineering education continues to lack diversity. The proportion of women, BIPOC, LGBTQA+, low-income, first-generation, and disabled students in engineering education remains below national population levels. The culture of engineering is a barrier to increasing participation in engineering for students from these communities. The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore the experiences of underrepresented engineering students as they are socialized into the culture of engineering. I theorized a novel conceptual framework called creative materialism that combines culturally responsive methodologies, new materialist theory, and arts-based research methods. Two research questions were used to guide the study. …

The Influence Inclusive Literature Circles With Multicultural Literature Has On The Self-Efficacies Of 4th Grade Students With Disabilities, Brianna Norcross

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to determine what happens to fourth grade students with disabilities reading self-efficacies when they participate in inclusive literature circles with multicultural literature. The purpose of this teacher research was to investigate strategies to improve reading self-efficacies of students with disabilities, investigating what would happen if students with disabilities were placed heterogeneously with their peers while reading books with characters with disabilities and how that influenced their reading self-efficacies. Four students with a disability were integrated with their general education peers in their inclusive classroom to participate in literature circles for four weeks. The multicultural books were books …

Neurodiversity In The Classroom: Reframing General Educators’ Thoughts On Neurodiversity And Inclusion, Ivy Madden

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis is designed to teach general education teachers about neurodiversity and the importance of recognizing neurodivergent students to better assist them in class. This includes exploring different ways to teach, perform lessons, and provide choices for students to choose how to do their assignments in order to express their knowledge. Specifically for general educators, the ideas presented are encouraged for teachers to research and implement for both neurodivergent and neurotypical students in their classrooms.

The Action Research method of problem solving inspired this synthesis and guided it to its completion. It is dedicated to my constituents (my colleagues), and …

The Barriers Teachers Face When Implementing The Universal Design For Learning Framework, Dana Dacus-Hare

Education | Master's Theses

There are multiple barriers to learning that students face. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for teaching and learning that gives all students an equal opportunity to succeed. While many studies address the hurdles teachers face when implementing the UDL framework, there is a gap in the research about the support systems that can minimize those barriers for teachers. There is also a lack of existing studies about the additional frameworks that can work in connection with UDL to meet the needs of diverse learners. Using UDL and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) together provides a framework that traditional …

Emerging As A Scholar-Advocate Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Isabelle Hoagland

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

'Shad' Never Made Them Happy: Pandemic And A Dis-Abling Educational System - Case Of Iran, Negin Hosseini Goodrich, Abouzar Samiei

International Journal on Responsibility

As the pandemic began, Iran quickly faced the worst outbreak in the Middle East during the winter of 2020. Traditional schools were consequently transferred to an online education without implementing appropriate adaptations, and restrictive policies of low-speed Internet and censorship negatively affected the quality of online education. The situation became even worse for Iranian students with disabilities. The Ministry of Education designed a new application, named Shaad (means happy), which was and remains inaccessible for people with disabilities. This qualitative research study explores the educational challenges of the Iranian students with disabilities during the pandemic. The authors argue physical and …

Cripping And Deafening Covid-19- Re-Framing A Pandemic In Higher Education, Wendy S. Harbour

International Journal on Responsibility

This article looks at ways institutions of higher education (IHEs) can use the models of disability, disability studies, and Deaf studies to “crip” and “Deafen” their response to COVID-19. A review of previous epidemics and pandemics, including yellow fever, the 1918 influenza epidemic, polio, and HIV/AIDS disease, disability, and Deafness. Health services, counseling centers, and disability resource centers expanded over time, and IHEs still rely heavily on them for health, disability, and Deaf concerns. By cripping and Deafening COVID-19 responses, higher education can use a more holistic view of the pandemic, making illness, mental health, disability and Deafness the responsibility …

Overview Of The Proceedings Of The 2022 Inclusion In Science, Learning A New Direction, Conference On Disability (Island), Cary A. Supalo, Jasodhara Bhattacharya, Daniel Steinberg

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The 13th annual Inclusion in Science, Learning a New Direction, Conference on Disability was hosted by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a National Science Foundation funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), and Princeton University on September 16-17, 2022 at Bowen Hall. This annual conference included presentations that featured innovative research done by science educators in formal and informal education contexts, ranging from pre-K-12 to higher education, and science education researchers, access technology developers, and others interested in the full inclusion of persons with disabilities into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. The 2022 ISLAND …

From The Editors..., Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Special Education: Inclusion And Exclusion In The K-12 U.S. Educational System, Erik Brault

Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education defines students with disabilities as those having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities. Previous research has found that students with disabilities placed in inclusive environments perform better academically and socially compared to students with disabilities who are placed in segregated environments. Yet, we know that inclusion in K-12 general education classrooms across the country is not consistently implemented.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the effects, if any, of general education high school teachers’ personal and professional experiences and knowledge on their attitudes toward educating …

Equalizing Postsecondary Transition For At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services: A Chance To Succeed, Karla R. Sanchez

Dissertations

Postsecondary transition can be difficult for At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services (APYRSES). Special educators supporting postsecondary transition often manifest traditional and institutionalized forms of oppressive education while dismissing collective values and beliefs.

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs and attitudes shared by three special education teachers after being introduced to a justice-focused, humanizing intervention to facilitate postsecondary transition for APYRSES. The conceptualized intervention was grounded in liberatory educational frameworks and drew from critical, culturally affirming, sustaining, and humanizing theories that foster cultural reciprocity, self-determination skills, and antiracist social–emotional justice learning to afford opportunities for APYRSES to succeed. The …

Active Imagination, Wellbeing And Ways Of Seeing: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Experiences Of Adult Learners With Visual Impairments, Steinberg Henry

Educational Studies Dissertations

Six female and two male adult learners who became blind between the ages of 20 and 75 years participated in this study conducted by a blind researcher. The purposely sampled eight were interviewed virtually by way of Zoom. In combination with Johnny Saldana’s work on codes, this study used the NVivo framework for determining structuring categories, selecting node themes, code frameworks and final codes from the first interview. 291 codes were clustered under 26 node themes. NVivo’s word frequency search and Word Tree were applied to clarify and lend a number value to participants’ codes. The second interview, administered after …

College Professors As Servant Leaders: Promoting Student Dignity In The Classroom, Garfield R. Benjamin

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

The COVID-19 pandemic brought great disparities to society as a whole. In the education sector, teachers were forced to deliver content while exploring new ways to do so through new or unfamiliar technologies, working in various modalities, while keeping students engaged. This change called for instructors to be flexible, be aware, have empathy, have foresight, build community, communicate, and care for students in this new, mostly virtual, environment. This research explores the idea of college educators as servant leaders by examining definitions of servant leadership, exploring how a servant leader empowers those they lead in times of crisis, examining implications …

Servant Leadership: A Powerful Paradigm For Effective Leadership In Africa, Franklin Ezeorah

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Lack of good leadership is the greatest undoing of African progress. Unfortunately, good leadership for Africans is not just mirroring the western leadership system but adapting to a style of leadership that is attractive to African people’s way of life and effective for African people’s development and wellbeing. Because leadership is a crucial determining factor for the success of all economic, political, and organizational structures, determining an essential leadership style for a nation-state largely depends on how suitable the style can fit into the complex challenges facing such a nation-state. Considering the viability and profitability of the servant leadership style …