ERIC Number: EJ1431376
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Jun
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1931-7913
Perspectives from Undergraduate Life Sciences Faculty: Are We Equipped to Effectively Accommodate Students with Disabilities in Our Classrooms?
Emma C. Goodwin; Danielle Pais; Jingyi He; Logan E. Gin; Sara E. Brownell
CBE - Life Sciences Education, v23 n2 Article 18 2024
Higher education has evolved in ways that may increase the challenges life science faculty face in providing accommodations for students with disabilities. Guided by Expectancy-Value Theory, we interviewed 34 life sciences faculty instructors from institutions nationwide to explore faculty motivation to create disability-inclusive educational experiences. We found that faculty in our sample perceive that providing most standard accommodations is a manageable but often challenging task. Further, faculty in our sample feel that improving accommodations necessitates additional support from their institutions. Most faculty had high attainment value for providing accommodations, in that they strongly believed that supporting students with disabilities is the fair and right thing to do. However, faculty did not perceive much utility value or intrinsic value in their task of providing accommodations, and most reported that providing accommodations can be a substantial burden on faculty. These findings imply that current approaches to providing inclusive educational experiences for students with disabilities rely primarily on the personal belief that providing accommodations is the right thing to do, which likely results in a flawed and inequitable system given that not all faculty equally share this conviction.
Descriptors: College Faculty, Biological Sciences, Undergraduate Study, Academic Accommodations (Disabilities), Educational Experience, Students with Disabilities, Teacher Attitudes, Teacher Responsibility, Beliefs, Research Universities, Teacher Motivation, Inclusion
American Society for Cell Biology. 8120 Woodmont Avenue Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20814-2762. Tel: 301-347-9300; Fax: 301-347-9310; e-mail: ascbinfo@ascb.org; Website: https://www.lifescied.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Graduate Education (DGE); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1311230; AWD00037453; 2012998