Special Education Reflection Journal

Special Education Reflection Journal

Upon participating in the Disability Implicit Association Test, my results surprised me. The results showed that I prefer persons with disability over non-disabled individuals. Nonetheless, I am happy with this result, and I agree with it. Besides, I am more connected to and concerned with people with disabilities, and I have never viewed them as different from normal or persons without disabilities.

I have professional and personal experience with people with disabilities, which would have impacted my result. For example, I have worked with elders and disabled persons in a nursing home for years and have met many great persons with diverse forms of disability. Most importantly, I have a big concern, love, and heart for people with disabilities. Further, my result will have great results in instruction and leadership. I will be able to nurture a leadership culture that includes people with disabilities because they also have greater potential (Stader, 2007). It said that disability is not inability. The result will positively impact my instruction because I will learn to care more for those with disabilities so that they can feel included and loved.

Having worked with different special needs persons, from dementia, Autism to Alzheimer’s, I have treated them equally as other normal persons. Therefore, this result has given me the exact answer I expected and encouraged me to remain unbiased. As such, understanding my implicit bias has equipped me to engage respectfully with diverse populations because it has taught me to embrace equality and inclusivity in everything I do, which will limit any form of bias. I have then learned that I should accommodate, understand, and engage with persons from diverse populations in a lovely and friendly manner so that they do not feel discriminated against or wrongly judged for their physical and non-physical disabilities.

Reference

Stader, D. L. (2007). Law and Ethics in Educational Leadership. Prentice Hall.

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According to Maureen Costello, the director of Teaching Tolerance, we all have implicit biases. These implicit biases are unconscious and involuntary. Fortunately, Costello offers a solution concerning personal bias. She says, “We can mitigate them. We can interrupt them. You can train your mind to catch yourself. It’s like breaking a habit, but the first thing you have to do is become aware of the habit” (Flannery, 2015). Biases regarding student’s ability levels are common in special education and can result in expectations that fail to challenge or support a child’s education. “Special education is the most heavily litigated area of school law. As the rights of students with disabilities have expanded since 1975, parents and their children with disabilities have well-defined legal rights and clearly articulated procedural due-process rights” (McCarthy et al., 2018).

Special Education Reflection Journal

After you take the test, do not report your results. Instead, use the experience as background information to respond to the following questions in your journal:

Were you surprised by your results? Why or why not?
Do you have a professional or personal experience that you think impacted your results?
What impact do you believe your result has on your instructional and leadership practices?
How does understanding your own implicit bias better equip you for respectful engagement with diverse populations?