Resumen de Understanding (in)accessible education: exploring the factors that promote and/or deter equitableteaching and learning
E. Marquis, Rob A. De Bie, C. Woolmer, M. Suttie, O. Watkin McClurg
While attention to accessible teaching has grown considerably in recent years, evidence suggeststhat disabled students continue to experience a range of exclusions and barriers within postsecondarycontexts (Marquis et al., 2016; Hughes, Corcoran & Slee, 2016). Further attention to addressing suchentrenched inequities is thus required. Complementing a wide body of research that explores therelative accessibility of learning contexts and/or evaluates the efficacy of particular interventionsaimed at supporting accessible teaching (e.g., Everett & Oswald, 2018; Madriaga et al., 2010), this studyinvestigates contextual, conceptual, and individual factors that mediate change in teaching practicesrelating to accessibility for disabled students. In particular, we focus here on what motivates—and/ordemotivates—instructors to teach in accessible ways.Data of relevance to this question were drawn from focus groups and interviews with instructors(n=11) and teaching assistants (n=16) at a mid-sized, research-intensive Canadian university.Preliminary findings point toward a range of factors that encourage or discourage accessible teaching,including departmental, disciplinary, and institutional cultures; varying orientations to accessibility;significant encounters that influence teaching practice; and instructor affective experiences. Consideringthese findings, we argue for further attention within discussions of accessible teaching to the multipleand complex nature of motivation, including its socio-cultural components and its relation to (sociallyinfluenced) emotional experiences.
