Examining Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education For All: Development Of A New Scale, Stephan Kielblock, Woodcock, John Ehrich

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education are widely recognised as a key indicator of the inclusiveness of classroom environments. However, existing instruments inadequately capture teachers’ mindsets in relation to inclusive education for all learners. This study addresses this gap by developing and validating a new cross-cultural measurement instrument: the Attitudes Towards Inclusion for All scale (ATIFA), in both English (ATIFA-EN) and German (ATIFA-DE). Data were collected from pre-service and in-service teachers in Australia (n = 146) and Germany (n = 238). Exploratory factor analysis and Rasch modelling identified four robust subscales—Philosophy, Practice, Social Inclusion, and Support—with strong psychometric properties. Evidence of …

We All Read: Adapting An Early Literacy Program For Children With Developmental Differences And Their Families, Rachel Podl

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Children with developmental differences face elevated risk for early literacy delays, while their caregivers experience significant difficulty accessing appropriate and supportive resources. This paper describes an adaptation of WeRead, an existing story-time and psychoeducation program through the University of Denver's Baby S.T.E.P.S. Lab, for children ages 0–7 with developmental differences and their caregivers. The program integrated a neurodiversity-affirming read-aloud, a strengths-based art activity, movement and music, caregiver psychoeducation on visual schedules, and collaboration with four community partners. The event drew approximately 65 attendees. A post-program survey, though limited by few responses, indicated that caregivers valued the program's accessibility, community partnerships, …

Does Gender Spell Success? Exploring Female Student Perspectives Of Faculty At A Higher Educational Institution, Chitora Jackson

Journal of Research Initiatives

Numerous studies have pointed to connections and positive interactions with faculty that result in positive outcomes for students (Beckowski & Gebauer, 2018; Jones, 2020; Trolian et al., 2021). However, despite this knowledge, there are still some areas related to this topic that remain under-researched. The purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of female students at a higher educational institution and to understand how those experiences shape their perspectives of female and male faculty. Additionally, this study sought to discover how faculty gender influences their interactions with students and the similarities and differences between …

Navigating Text-To-Speech (Tts): Ethical Leadership In The Use Of Generative Ai For Extension, Xue A Dong, Paul A Hill

Journal of Extension

Text-to-speech (TTS) AI technology transforms written content into natural-sounding speech, offering a useful tool to enhance accessibility and inclusivity in Extension work. This article examines the role of TTS AI in bridging communication gaps, particularly for diverse and multilingual communities, and demonstrates the importance of ethical leadership in its adoption. By prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion, Extension professionals can leverage TTS AI to foster greater connection and engagement. Practical applications and examples are provided to guide the integration of TTS AI into programs. The article also offers recommendations for experimenting with innovative technologies to improve educational outcomes and increase the …

Artificial Intelligence As A Tool To Enhance High-Leverage Practices In Special Education, Kanisha Porter, Viveca Grant Ed.D., Delilah A. Gonzales

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

Special education teachers face instructional, documentation, and compliance demands that often impede the fidelity of High-Leverage Practices (HLPs). While HLPs are central to promoting positive academic and behavioral growth for students with disabilities, a significant research-to-practice gap persists because educators lack the time and resources to implement these evidence-based strategies consistently within increasingly complex classrooms. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers emerging opportunities to mitigate systemic burdens by serving as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for professional judgment. This manuscript examines AI’s potential to enhance HLP implementation across the domains of instruction, data-driven practice, collaboration, and intensive intervention. Drawing upon …

Digital Learning And Digital Literacy: Conceptual Distinctions, Theoretical Frameworks, And Educational Implications Across The Educational Continuum, Simone Elias, Linda Wilson-Jones, Richard Brutti

Journal of Research Initiatives

The terms digital learning and digital literacy recur frequently in educational policy and institutional discourse. Yet peer-reviewed scholarship shows they are conceptually distinct constructs operating at fundamentally different levels of analysis. This article examines the theoretical foundations, definitional genealogies, empirical interdependencies, and grade-band and postsecondary manifestations of both constructs across the full educational continuum, from kindergarten through Grade 12 and into undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education. Drawing on literature across leading educational technology journals, the article argues that digital learning constitutes a pedagogical modality, the structured, technology-mediated environment through which instruction is delivered.

In contrast, digital literacy is a multidimensional …

Access In Teaching Stem Subjects To The Blind, Ashley E. Neybert

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

There are still many gaps in the literature regarding the difficulties faced by instructors of students who are blind and low vision and who teach Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects. We surveyed 26 K-12 STEM teachers about accessible materials they are aware of versus which accessible materials they use in their classrooms, their thoughts on how common challenges identified in the extent literature affect them in their teaching, and their perspective on how much extra time may be required for blind and low vision students (if any) to effectively learn STEM subjects.

‘I’Ve Always Been On Call For My Sister’: An Exploration Of The Impact Of Having A Sibling With A Life Limiting Condition On The Experience Of Education, Emily Joanne Pinn

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

There are currently approximately 99,000 babies, children and young people living with life-limiting conditions (LLCs) in the UK alone (Together for Short Lives, 2025b). Many of these young people will have siblings who are navigating the opportunities and challenges of having a sibling with an LLC. Despite this, there is a stark lack of research investigating the impact of being one of these siblings. As a result, this combined autoethnographic and qualitative enquiry will aim to provide an insight into how young people’s experiences of being a young carer to a sibling with an LLC impacted different elements of their …

Agree To Disagree? Classification Agreement Among Discrepancy-Based Sld Models Used In School Psychology, Emma M. Ferns, Carlos O. Calderón-Tena

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

For decades, school psychologists have attempted to operationalize the federal definition of the most prevalent disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), specific learning disability. These attempts have led to three major identification method camps: the severe discrepancy approach, the patterns of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) approach, and the response-to-intervention approach—all of which are federally permissible under the IDEA. This study aimed to determine whether three operationalizations of the severe discrepancy approach (simple severe discrepancy using 1 and 1.5 standard deviations and the regression approach) identified the same students as those classified by their school as having an …

Artistic Inquiry As A Critical Disability Studies Methodology: Interdisciplinarity By Queer, Trans, And Gender Non-Conforming Disabled Artists, Brandi Lewis

Education Studies Faculty publications

Arts-based and artistic research as a critical disability studies (CDS) methodology is an artistic inquiry into material practices and social conditions around disabled lives, communities, and care systems that support justice and liberation for disabled people. This article examines interdisciplinary practices of queer, trans, and gender non-conforming disabled artists as forms of research. Artists Rora Blue, Alex Dolores Salerno, Yo-Yo Lin 林友友, and Finnegan Shannon critique social hierarchies and exclusions by deconstructing normative ideologies about access and embodiment. Through crip politics, their approaches explore disability’s entanglement with ableist, colonial cis/hetero/patriarchy. Artistic inquiry as a CDS methodology moves beyond disability as …

Low-Income, Minority-Serving Public Schools In Southern California Have Disproportionately High Surface Temperatures, Joaquin Murillo, Gabriella R. Dauber, Joshua B. Fisher, Gregory R. Goldsmith

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Extensive evidence demonstrates that people from minority backgrounds often face unequal exposure to extreme heat and have less access to green space that can provide cooling relief. What is less clear is whether these inequities extend to students on school playgrounds, where high temperatures can affect physical health, social and emotional well-being, and learning. We paired high resolution, satellite remote sensing surface temperature data for all 615 of the public schools in Orange County, California (serving ca. 450,000 students) with data on neighborhood household income, race/ethnicity of school enrollment, distance from the coast, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index as a …

Getting A Special Education: Parents, Lawyers, And The Politics Of Disability In Postwar Pennsylvania, Emma Gabriel

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper explores the relationship between white parent advocates in Pennsylvania and public interest lawyers, whose litigation efforts legitimized the construction of an implicitly white disabled class in the mid-twentieth century. This analysis sheds light on the ways in which school reform became a key element in the simultaneous construction and renegotiation of intellectual disability and race in the postwar era, and foregrounded the adoption of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975.

Harmonicthreads: A Formative Evaluation Of A Fabric-Based Digital Musical Instrument Toward Inclusive Music-Making, Ellie Nguyen, Franceli L. Cibrian

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Background:

Inclusive music-making requires instruments that support varied bodies, abilities, musical backgrounds, and forms of participation. Digital musical instruments provide diverse approaches to sound creation, and fabric-based interfaces offer an alternative interaction modality that may support participation for some users and contexts. Their tactile and deformable properties enable forms of interaction that differ from conventional rigid or screen-based controllers and may offer inclusive possibilities in particular settings.

Objective:

This paper presents HarmonicThreads as a formative interaction-design case of a fabric-based digital musical instrument. The prototype explores how tactile cues, fabric deformation, projected visual feedback, and assisted accompaniment can support low-barrier …

Sensory Profile: Understanding Soothers And Stressors, Niki Elliott Ph.D.

Neuroinclusion

Sensory experiences shape how we move through the world: how we learn, focus, connect with others, and sustain energy across the day. For neurodiverse individuals in particular, sensory input is often central to how environments are experienced. Stress, fatigue, withdrawal, or overwhelm often emerge from a mismatch between a person’s sensory needs and the environments they are navigating, rather than from individual deficits or lack of effort. Lighting, noise, movement demands, unpredictability, clutter, and even well-intentioned routines can either support ease and participation or place additional strain on the nervous system. This Sensory Profile is designed to help individuals and …

Impact And Utilization Of Asl Lab Spaces In University Settings, Nathan J. Dutra, Michele Vincent

Journal of Interpretation

American Sign Language (ASL) is a challenging yet rapidly growing language taught at both secondary and higher education levels. Despite its increasing popularity, there is limited literature on utilizing ASL labs as learning centers. This quantitative study examines the implementation of a new ASL lab at a large four-year university in California. It investigates the factors influencing participation, the motivations behind students' involvement, and their perceptions of the lab's effectiveness. Results indicate significant associations between course modality, instructor influence, and lab participation. The study suggests that ASL labs function as cultural and educational spaces that promote visibility of Deaf culture …

Expanding Access To Outdoor Recreation Through Adaptive Trail Riding In Utah, Makenna L. Pahlke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Limited access to outdoor recreation limits opportunities for people with disabilities to enjoy the physical and psychosocial benefits of horseback riding. The Utah State University Equine Experience, an Extension program focused on horses, assessed an adaptive trail riding initiative for participants aged 12 to 40. Findings showed improvements in confidence, self-awareness, engagement, and social connections, highlighting the public benefit of enhancing accessible equine-assisted activities.

Beyond The Binary: Strengthening Nursing Students’ Proficiency Of Equitable Health Promotion, Martha K. Findley

Theses

Background: Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) populations continue to experience significant health inequities, yet prelicensure nursing curricula often lack structured, evidence‑based training to prepare students for equitable care.

Purpose: This study evaluated whether a targeted, transgender‑focused simulation could improve nursing students’ clinical knowledge and preparedness for providing equitable health promotion to SGD populations.

Methods: A pre‑/post‑intervention design was used with senior‑level nursing students who completed a transgender patient simulation emphasizing communication, assessment, and equitable health promotion. Students completed a validated survey measuring knowledge and preparedness in caring for SGD patients.

Results: Significant improvements across most survey items demonstrated that the …

“Nothing About Us Without Us”: Examining Sense Of Belonging And College Success Through The Experiences Of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Courtney E. Mulligan

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Sense of belonging has become an increasingly important indicator of student engagement, persistence, and success in higher education. Despite this, limited research has explored how college students with autism experience and define belonging while at college. As increasing numbers of students with autism pursue postsecondary education, institutions face a growing need to better understand the factors that influence student experiences and outcomes. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the experiences of sense of belonging among current college students with autism and identify the factors that contribute positively or negatively to this experience to inform more inclusive higher …

“School’S Not For Me. I Don't Belong In School.”: Students With Dis/Abilities’ Perspectives On Special Education During State Intervention, Leila E. Parks

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study presents the lived experiences of 10 racialized teens with dis/abilities who received special education services in the Boston Public Schools during state intervention. As a youth participatory action research collective, the young people in the study’s Youth with Dis/Abilities Research Group explored issues of inclusion and exclusion, ableism, racism, and safety at school. The project was framed by dis/ability critical race studies, incorporating aspects of critical race theory and disability studies in education. Based on stories expressed through free-writes, poetry, drawings, interviews, and group conversations, the racialized teens with dis/abilities shared negative school experiences overall. Though most …

Solving For X: Centering Black Girls’ Experiences In Mathematics Education, Natasha A. Fortes

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Black girls can grow up, attend school, and move through their math classes without ever feeling seen as capable mathematical thinkers. Their teachers may not affirm their brilliance. Their voices may even go unheard. Math classes may not be a space where they can imagine themselves belonging. These experiences do not reflect ability. Instead, they reflect on the conditions in which they are expected to learn. This study centers the voices of Black girls and asks what they deserve from their mathematics education and instructors to develop a mathematics identity. The study is grounded in Black feminist traditions and draws …