Faculty training: an unavoidable requirement for approaching more inclusive university classrooms

Abstract

Adequate policies for faculty training in diversity continue to be pending on the agendas of many universities. This paper presents the recommendations of 44 university students with disabilities not only for adequate faculty training, but also on informing them on both matters of the disability itself and how to respond to the needs derived from it. The data analyzed come from research funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness ‘University Barriers and Aids Identified by Students with Disabilities’, which has been underway since 2011. A biographical-narrative methodology was used. The university life histories of the students were compiled by making use of in-depth interviews, lifelines and photographs. The conclusions of the study discuss the main results along with other previous studies, and recommendations are made so universities can provide training plans leading to inclusive education and learning.

Keywords:

• higher education
• students with disabilities
• inclusive education
• faculty training
• life histories

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The fields of knowledge included are: Health Sciences, Experimental Sciences, Social Sciences and Law, Engineering and Technology, and Humanities.

2. At the present time, faculty training at the University of Seville is managed by the ‘Institute of Education Sciences', which offers free complementary training courses in a diversity of subjects, but always very specifically related to teaching (IT programs, technology platform, languages and teaching methodologies). This training is voluntary and there is practically nothing in it about disabilities.

3. To protect the confidentiality of the participants in the study, abbreviations are used to identify them. Thus, RSC refers to Health Sciences, RSE to Social Sciences and Law, RSP to Social Sciences (Education), RTE to Engineering and Technology and Experimental Sciences and RH to Humanities. Each of these abbreviations is accompanied by a number that identifies the participant.

4. The only service which the University currently has for this purpose is the Disabled Student Services Office. Only one person with a degree in psychology works there, for a population which in academic year 2014/2015 was as many as 600 students. Therefore, the authors of this article believe that the question is not that the service does not exist, but that due to the large number of students it has to serve, the functions it performs are others.

5. In this regard, see the study by Moriña, López, and Molina (2015), in which they deal with this subject in greater depth.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant number EDU 2010-16264]; Junta de Andalucía, Proyecto de Excelencia [grant number P11-SEJ-7255].