Growing Engagement
Asynchronous Session
Inclusion of Students with Physical Disabilities while Teaching and Learning Physical Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aubrey H. Shaw
James I. Charlton, in his 2000 text, Nothing About Us Without Us, argues that policy and programs for individuals with disabilities should not exist without input and participation of the population. I agree especially for teaching physical education. Few if any teacher preparation programs actively recruit individuals with physical disabilities to teach. If Charlton is correct, would it also not be logical to prepare the population to be role models, educators, and even coaches? At the same time, the concept would mean that school programs throughout the Western world would by necessity need better inclusive policies and programs for the population in physical education and sport. Most future abled-bodied physical educators had positive experiences participating in school sport. All of which, unfortunately, is not true for those with physical disabilities. Our present practices limit opportunities especially since abled-bodied physical educators feel inhibited by their education, their resources, and even by their attitudes. What would happen if we revisited our own perspectives about inclusion of the population in our policies and programs for teacher preparation? Thus, the purpose of this paper is threefold: 1) to discuss pre-service teacher preparation for engaging students with physical disabilities in physical education, 2) to examine the importance of role modeling, environment, and education to create a positive experience for students with physical disabilities and able-bodied students in physical education, and 3) to provide solutions on how to include students with physical disabilities in physical education classrooms.
Academic Insights into Disability Sport
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christopher Brown
Disability Sport Info is an accessible online educational resource that explains various aspects of disability sport to a non-expert audience. Disability Sport Info consists of a podcast, YouTube explainer videos, and a dedicated website. Disability Sport Info is currently an open-access podcast that focuses on specialist topics such as grassroots sport, high-performance sport, and the Paralympic Games. Disability Sport Info placed 3rd in the Best Equality and Social Impact category in the 2022 Sports Podcast Awards. The podcast features experts from around the world to explore topics in depth. Disability Sport Info will be expanded through the use of YouTube videos that explore key questions in disability sport and provide easy to understand content in less than 10 minutes. The website will enable users to easily navigate to their topic of interest, providing clear information in a reliable and convenient manner. Research is currently focused on the efficacy of the podcast as a learning tool, and it is hoped the Disability Sport Info suite of resources will be the focus of further empirical research as the project develops. The aim of this session is to demonstrate the Disability Sport Info tools, report on user-experiences of the resources, and to explain how Disability Sport Info can be used for university educators to support students in understanding disability sport. It is hoped this session will encourage a critical discussion to further the usefulness and applicability of Disability Sport Info for university educators.
A New Approach for Pre-service Teachers to Include Students with Physical Disabilities in Physical Education: Perspective Taking
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sharon Kay Stoll, Aubrey H. Shaw
In the United States, the pre-service teaching curriculum to include students with physical disabilities is limited. Few states expect more than a minimum of one class in disability which directly limits resources for collegiate preparation programs to offer more than one class. The result affects attitudes, knowledge, and inclusive practices to include the population. For example, an Idaho teaching certification only mandates one class, and the curriculum is usually focused on studying three US laws for inclusion of people with physical disabilities: the Rehabilitation Act, The Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. If time permits preservice students may intern with present teachers in programs fostered under the same system. Sadly, because of the law-driven curriculum two things occur: students with physical disabilities are not physically literate and, in some districts, administrators find loopholes to exclude. A student in a wheelchair is pushed around the gym by an aide while the abled-bodied students play soccer. Or the student in the wheelchair is a referee but does not actively play. What if there was a different approach to addressing inclusion for preservice teachers? The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to examine barriers that affect attitudes and competency, 2) to discuss viewing the total curriculum in an inclusive light, and 3) provide a solution of perspective taking and how it changes the pre-service curriculum and experience to fully include.
