Matching Items (2)
Description
Inclusive education has been impeded by deficit-oriented policies and practices that promote standardization and lead to student segregation by ability/disability labels. Deficit perspectives are maintained across separate programs (i.e., general, special, gifted) through distinct sets of practices and extend into higher education and academia. In response to this issue, this dissertation used strengths-based strategies for collaboratively rethinking and reimagining educational practices, perspectives, and interactions towards inclusivity. The purpose of this research was to study unexpected moments in learning events (i.e., micromoments), explore educators’ responses to these events, and develop strategies for inclusive education professional learning (PL). Diverse educators and neurodivergent adults responded to task invitations based on the research questions: How might micromoments move in/with/through emergent learning events? And, how might attunement to micromoment assemblages be developed? Additional questions explored how conceptualizations of micromoment movement and attunement might transform inclusive education PL and qualitative inquiry.
The neurodiversity paradigm, activist philosophy, post-oppositional transformation theory, and creative learning concepts supported an embodied, multiple, emergent, and inter-relational study of the micromoment. Methodological-poly-experiments formulated as invitations to tasks were used as initial enabling constraints for this research-creation. Documentation from several small Zoom group meetings was used in data-weaving, which included collective speculative fabulations (i.e., storying), post-qualitative cartography in the forms of fiber art sculpture mappings, and a moving content analysis.
The neurodiversity-inspired educational perspective developed in this study supported a PL shift away from student labels toward the study and design of learning events. Attunement to micromoment movement in learning events was practiced by following micromoment dimensions, elements, and flows. This led to the development of a framework for the study of micromoments for educator PL.
This study merged creativity studies, disability studies in education, and educational research. Furthermore, this project extended post-qualitative and research-creation methodologies, offered suggestions for redefining various methodological concepts and neurotypical expectations, and introduced several new concepts for qualitative inquiry.
In conclusion, creative professional learning/unlearning strategies, including reflection on underlying educational perspectives and learning event interactions, were part of a meaningful process in cultivating inclusive education for neurodiverse teachers, students, and research participants.
ContributorsVasquez, Anani Maria (Author) / Koro, Mirka (Thesis advisor) / Beghetto, Ronald (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, David L. (Committee member) / Mathur, Sarup (Committee member) / McAvoy, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The neurodiversity movement is a conceptual framework and sociopolitical movement that views neurological differences and disabilities as natural human variations that can form a central component of one’s identity. Despite the attention in disciplines outside of psychology and academia, there has been little attention paid to neurodiversity within counseling psychology. The present study consists of the development and initial validation of a quantitative scale to assess endorsement of a neurodiversity framework with respect to autism. Diverse samples of adults were utilized to conduct exploratory (N = 249) and confirmatory (N = 259) factor analyses, resulting in a three-factor model that demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. Additional analyses revealed that endorsement of the neurodiversity framework is positively correlated with activist engagement and self-esteem, and that endorsement of the neurodiversity framework is negatively correlated with negative attitudes toward people with disabilities. Autistic adults endorsed the neurodiversity framework to a greater extent than neurotypical adults. Implications for psychological research regarding neurodiversity and disability identity are discussed.
ContributorsVanDaalen, Rachel Ann (Author) / Dillon, Frank (Thesis advisor) / Capielo Rosario, Cristalís (Committee member) / Santos, Carlos E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021