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This study investigated the capacity of a self-advocacy curriculum implemented in Tennessee suggested components that make up the conceptual framework of self-determination curriculum, (2) school-wide intervention had occurred, (3) self-determination goals were included in individualized education programs (IEPs) and transition plans, and (4) there was awareness of the curriculum capacity among Tennessee educators. This study employed descriptive and comparative statistical methods to establish assumptions regarding the curriculum's effectiveness. Educators were grouped based on their teaching role (i.e., special education, regular education, and administration) and whether or not they received training and technical assistance from the University of Tennessee's Center on Disability and Employment. An on-line survey provided data necessary to determine educators' perceptions of the curriculum's capacity to provide students opportunities to learn and practice self-advocacy skills. Seven major findings evaluated the Self-Determination and Career Planning Model as evidence-based. Educators agreed the curriculum helped students demonstrate self-advocacy skills.Educators who received training to implement the self-advocacy curriculum were better prepared to observe students' demonstration of self-advocacy skills.Self-advocacy goals were included in IEPs and transition plans.Attendance at IEP meetings did not bias educators' opinions of students' skills.The self-advocacy curriculum contained 4 recommended curriculum dimensions.Tennessee educators have a high awareness of self-determination curriculum capacity.Educators indicated an increase in student IEP participation. These findings evaluated the Self-Determination and Career Planning Model as evidence-based. Suggested curriculum improvements should be implemented and accountability of school districts to implement the curriculum should be communicated to all educators.

To be successful in the general education students with disabilities may require accommodations. Students with disabilities need to develop self-advocating skills to be able to request the accommodations needed in the general education. This article describes a study in which six high school students with learning disabilities were explicitly taught to recognize when an accommodation was needed, select the appropriate accommodation, request the accommodation and then implement the accommodation in the general education classroom. The study indicated that students were able to advocate for themselves by requesting accommodations from their general education teacher. Based on data collected though this study, it is important for self-advocacy training to be implemented in the curriculum for all students with disabilities.

The population of young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is growing as more individuals with ASD age into adulthood. Almost half of the children diagnosed with ASD who were surveyed in 2010 demonstrated average or above average intelligence (CDC, 2014). Despite promising intellectual abilities, only 17.4% of young adults with ASD enroll in a four-year college, and only 38.8% of students with ASD graduate postsecondary education within eight years of leaving high school (Newman et al., 2011). Therefore, there is a growing niche for postsecondary support programs specifically designed for students with ASD. This doctoral project includes two parts: the development of an evidence-based online course for postsecondary students with ASD and the proposed evaluation of the online course. There are five theoretical reasons for poor postsecondary outcomes for young adults with ASD: (1) the increasing prevalence of ASD, (2) the absence of a “golden standard” in postsecondary transition for young adults with ASD, (3) the existing differences between educational and disability rights legislation at the secondary and postsecondary education levels, (4) the diagnostic characteristics of ASD, and (5) the characteristics of collegiate culture. The proposed online course curriculum will utilize evidence-based content and design from 29 pre-existing postsecondary support programs for students with ASD, and successful executive function and social skills curricula for students with ASD (“Unstuck and On Target”, Cannon, Kenworthy, Alexander, Werner, & Anthony, 2011; “PEERS for Young Adults”, Gantman, Kapp, Orenski, & Laugeson, 2011; “PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals”, Laugeson, 2014). The proposed feasibility study will measure the feasibility and acceptability of participation in an online course for college students with ASD. The proposed feasibility study will also measure preliminary outcomes regarding participants’ executive functioning, social skills, self-determination, and life satisfaction.

In the early 2000s, the idea of an “autism epidemic” spurred State action to expand research into autism’s causes and corresponding efforts at prevention, an effort overseen by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC). However, the language of autism prevention in the IACC’s Strategic Plan changed dramatically between 2009 and 2017, from the wholesale prevention of autism to prevention of its “most disabling aspects.” Through an analysis of IACC meeting transcripts during this timeframe, I trace the process by which this language was changed, with particular attention to the often-conflicting ways in which autistic self-advocates and non-autistic parent advocates framed autism itself. These conflicting conceptions of autism led to conflicting biological citizenship claims regarding the value of prevention, to which the IACC responded by attempting to appease both sides through language without substantially changing its aims. This process highlights the importance of framing in biological citizenship claims, as well as the persistence of the biopower State in asserting the need to regulate the existence of disability in the population.

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This dissertation is concerned with the under-researched subject of supporting people with learning difficulties to be in control of their own self-advocacy group while undertaking self-directed research. Guided by the social model of disability and emancipatory disability research principles I supported a group of people with learning difficulties within a self-advocacy organisation throughout the course of their own self-directed research project. At the same time, drawing upon various sources of data, I reflexively studied and analysed my own support practice, constructing the critical ethnography that is this dissertation. There were two purposes for working in the above way: (a) to provide the most effective support I could for the researchers to gain and maintain control of their research group and (b) to analyse the processes and challenges involved in providing support for self-directed self-advocacy group members and researchers (in order to develop the literature in this area). Analysis of data revealed the following. Supporting self-directed researchers with learning difficulties requires a broad range of involved, interconnected interpersonal support skills. Working in this way can present supporters with unforeseen time-consuming tasks as well as intellectual and psychological challenges as they respond to the needs and requests of the supported group. Supporting people with learning difficulties to be in control in this way, where the balance of power is actively weighted in their favour, is not only complex it can lead to the supporter facing institutional pressures to assume control over the group, feelings of psychological discomfort or stress and ethical dilemmas. Anaysis of the data led me to conclude that drawing specific boundaries around supporter behaviour and monitoring or developing an actively non-authoritarian practice through a process of critical reflection can be an important aspect of providing consistent and effective support for self-directed researchers with learning difficulties.

Perceptions of college Disability Support Services (DSS) and school system personnel regarding emerging best practices, adequacy of preparation of students with disabilities to access accommodations in college, and communication across systems were examined in this study. Once in college, students with disabilities have a lower rate of completion/success than their peers. Accommodations promote success in college, yet students with disabilities are not accessing them, thereby reducing their success. Adequacy of student preparation to access accommodations and communication across systems affects the access of accommodations by college students with disabilities. This study is qualitative, with 43 participants. It includes DSS personnel from five, four-year and five, two-year colleges/universities and transition personnel from five public school divisions in Virginia. Snowball sampling and a guided interview format were used. Rigor was addressed through triangulation, including document and web review. Results indicate that differences between the ADA and IDEA require students, teachers, and parents of students with disabilities to have knowledge of students’ rights and responsibilities under the ADA to prepare them for accessing accommodations in college. Students were more likely to be prepared when they had knowledgeable and supportive parents, transition teams, and teachers/case managers. Characteristics of individual students also help determine the effectiveness of student preparation. School system participants feel they have lack of access to students with disabilities transitioning to college to effectively prepare them for accessing accommodations in college. They also lack feedback about preparation effectiveness. Participants believe additional communication is needed. Existing communication is directional with school system staff making requests of DSS staff. There is also need for additional college outreach to school systems and a structure for ongoing communication is desired. It is recommended that best practices in preparation and communication be identified, knowledge of transition teams/parents be improved, and usefulness of the Summary of Performance be determined. Development of a system for students with less severe disabilities for transition preparation and a system for increased feedback and communication between systems personnel is needed. The VDOE and SCHEV should work to improve avenues for joint preparation and develop goals and an action plan for implementation.

abstract: This action research study focused on the beginning teacher attrition issues plaguing schools today. Specifically, this project explored a way to support out-of-state beginning teachers, who are traditionally difficult to retain. While there is literature on teacher retention, the retention of out-of-state teachers has not been well examined. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Bandura's self-efficacy theories provided a foundational understanding of this group's needs. This study utilized interactive support sessions for six out-of-state beginning teachers that had five face-to-face sessions and required the teachers to submit weekly reflections between sessions using an iPad and app that allowed teachers to design their reflections using digital images, words, and/or narration. These weekly digital reflections, mapping activities collected during the support sessions, a pre- and post-innovation questionnaire, and interviews provided insights on the impact of these supports, as well as changes that occurred in self-perceptions. The results of this study indicate the challenge and complexities of being an out-of-state beginning teacher. The data showed that the teachers must first have had their basic needs met before they could fully explore and settle into their new identities and role as the classroom teacher. The data also indicated that intentionally teaching these teachers strategies around resiliency, stress management, and self-advocacy was useful for navigating their first semester. The supportive community that developed within the group emerged as a significant finding, and showed the importance of support structures for new teachers, especially for those who are struggling with both a new job and new community. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2015

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T15:09:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1970497 bytes, checksum: f831a77f4fa5d2cac4098be1a58f7a55 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-07-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study is focused on the global political and collective-individual reality of people with disabilities in Brazil and Canada education. Your objective is to analyze from the perspective of human rights, individual experiences, systems (laws, policies, guidelines) and social attitudes that contribute (or don't) to the process of empowerment and selfadvocacy in people's lives with disabilities in the two countries. The story illuminates that is not today that the experiences of exclusion mark the life of the social group, consists of people with disabilities, who remains in a situation of intense social disadvantage. The international movement of people with deficiency has been highlighting the urgent need to guarantee human rights to citizenship and social participation of this group. The central argument of this study is that access to formal and informal educational, processes forms the basis for the experience of human rights and promotes the construction of a process of empowerment and the experience of selfadvocacy, breaking the cycle of impossibilities installed early in their lives. This research falls within the field of knowledge Cultural Studies in Education, from which the theoretical-methodological approach was based on precisely 'fluidity' advertisement by post modernity and adhered to the qualitative research approach, based on interviews of twenty-eight people with deficiencies in different contexts from Brazil and Canada. The analysis of reality between two different countries was an important factor to analyze because it became the basis for the identification of the elements that contribute to the empowerment and selfadvocacy of people with disabilities with emphasis on the social and economic arrangements of each reality. The findings of this research have shown that people with disabilities have been modifying their realities through their life stories and in addition to overcome their situations of oppression, their actions are decisive in the lives of others. These are undoubtedly situations that illustrate the major benefits of self-advocacy and empowerment for social change, regardless of political systems, cultural contexts and life chances. The selfadvocacy empowerment and thus help to break with a tradition of silencing and submission to the legal standards imposed vertically and mostly subjective norms in daily relationships. / Este estudo tem como foco a realidade político-global e coletivo-individual da educação de pessoas com deficiência no Brasil e no Canadá. O seu objetivo é analisar, pela ótica dos Direitos Humanos, experiências individuais, sistemas (leis, políticas, diretrizes) e atitudes sociais que colaboram (ou não) para o processo de empoderamento e autoadvocacia na vida de pessoas com deficiência dos dois países. A história ilumina que não é de hoje que as experiências de exclusão marcam a vida do grupo social constituído pelas pessoas com deficiência, o qual permanece em uma situação de desvantagem social intensa. O movimento internacional das pessoas com deficiência vem dando destaque à necessidade urgente de garantia dos direitos humanos para o exercício da cidadania e participação social desse grupo. O argumento central deste estudo é o de que o acesso a processos educacionais formais ou informais constitui a base para a vivência dos direitos humanos e promove a construção de um processo de empoderamento e a vivência da autoadvocacia, rompendo com o ciclo de impossibilidades instalado desde cedo em suas vidas. Esta pesquisa se insere no campo de conhecimento dos Estudos Culturais em Educação, a partir do qual o caminho teórico-metodológico baseou-se justamente na fluidez‟ propagada pela pós-modernidade e aderiu à abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, em que foram entrevistadas vinte e oito pessoas com deficiências de contextos distintos do Brasil e do Canadá. A análise da realidade entre dois países distintos constituiu um importante fator de análise, pois se tornou a base para a identificação dos elementos que contribuem para o empoderamento e autoadvocacia de pessoas com deficiência com destaque para os arranjos culturais, sociais e econômicos de cada realidade. Os achados desta pesquisa revelam que pessoas com deficiência vêm modificando suas realidades através de suas histórias de vida e, além de superarem suas situações de opressão, suas ações são decisivas na vida de outras pessoas. Essas são, sem dúvida, situações que ilustram os maiores benefícios da autoadvocacia e do empoderamento para mudança social, independentemente de sistemas políticos, contextos culturais e oportunidades particulares de vida. A autoadvocacia e o empoderamento, portanto, ajudam a romper com uma tradição de silenciamento e submissão às normas jurídicas impostas verticalmente e principalmente às normas subjetivas nas relações cotidianas.