30 September 2008

Faculty Makes University of Kansas First in Special Education

Program seeks to make people with disabilities full participants in society

The University of Kansas campus is located in Lawrence, a city of about 80,000, less than an hour’s drive from Kansas City.

By Jeffrey Thomas
Staff Writer

Washington — In some countries, special education means programs for those whose vision or hearing is impaired. In the United States, special education professionals address a much wider range of disabilities in the classroom and see their roles as extending outside the classroom to working with families, educating the public and participating in school reform.

The School of Education at the University of Kansas (KU) has for decades offered a program widely considered outstanding not only because of its research and effect on classroom practices, but also because of its international role in educating the public and influencing public policy.

“If you are a student wanting to study learning disabilities or family partnerships, or positive behavior support or special education policy, you really come here to study with people who are nationally and internationally renowned,” said Chriss Walther-Thomas, chair of the Department of Special Education, which this year celebrated its 50th anniversary. “Our faculty does a lot of research and writing, and so that’s where many of our international students find us — as a result of reading the publications, and especially now that they can get so many of those via the Internet.”

Sunyoung Ahn, a doctoral candidate from South Korea, said the faculty members are “the greatest asset.”

“They made me feel welcomed when I came to KU for the first time,” Ahn said. “I was lucky to meet many professors who were always open and encouraging to students. During my Ph.D. program, I learned that they were not only good people but also great scholars. I not only learned research skills and knowledge from them but also their diligence and good work ethic.”

“The KU faculty is truly committed to make the world of special education a priority in this country so that people with disabilities can become productive adults who are full participants in their communities and who can fulfill their citizenship duties,” said Susana Bernad-Ripoll, a doctoral candidate from Spain. “I found that all faculty members are committed to pursue this goal by the way in which they design their course, lectures and assignments.  They hold high expectations for their students as future leaders and they keep themselves at the forefront of research and writing in their areas of expertise.”

Pearson Hall is the home of the special education department, which graduated 18 doctoral students and 60 master's students in 2007.

“Everything learned can be applied in my country, and their program is wide yet very deep in content,” Bernad-Ripoll said.

About one quarter of those enrolled in the doctoral program are international students, Walther-Thomas said, most of them from East Asia.

Walther-Thomas considers the opportunity to interact with faculty members who are active researchers the most important advantage for international students. “They get involved in the research the faculty is doing,” she said. “In both early childhood and autism, faculty are very successful in getting these masters-level folks and doctoral folks involved in field research, so they really are out there seeing model programs of how teachers work with young children with disabilities, how students with autism are being included in general education classrooms, and I think that makes a huge difference.”

The department is affiliated with a number of well-known research units, including the Center for Research on Learning, Beach Center on Disability, Schiefelbusch Life Span Institute and Juniper Gardens Children’s Project.

Most doctoral candidates have a background in a related field. “Many of our international students studied psychology or were school psychologists,” Walther-Thomas said. “They come here ... with the idea that they will go back and be teacher educators, supervisors of early childhood programs in large urban areas, or some of the school psychologists plan to go back and go into private practice — for example, working with families whose children have been referred to psychologists because of possibly having autism or another type of disability.”

KU strives to prepare teacher educators and researchers who are civic professionals, Walther-Thomas said. “We talk about their role working in the public sector and how we need to be sensitive to the constituent groups, and that’s not just children but their families. Research over time has shown what a powerful difference it makes in what children do when their parents are able to advocate for them successfully.”

“A lot of what we focus on at the master’s level is the use of evidence-based practices,” she said. “What we focus on at the doctor’s level is a combination of research and writing skills. There’s a real focus on ‘how do you change systems?’ How do we reform schools, not so separate special education programs are necessarily developed, but so students with disabilities can be included in the general system of education for the benefit of students with disabilities, but also for the benefit of all children. We have long been advocates for a more inclusive approach to special education.”

Sunyoung Ahn also cited “active student involvement” as one of the great things about the KU program. “We have several student organizations in the department through which we socialize, share our research interests, and provide valuable collegial feedback on each other's work.”

For more information see Study in the U.S. and the eJournal USA issue “Disability and Ability.”