Students with disabilities are likely to have contact with a police officer as either a victim or a perpetrator of a crime; however, media outlets often underreport the presence of a disability. The lack of acknowledgment of disabilities raises concerns regarding the ability of a police officer to support a person with a disability. Likewise, students need to be prepared to interact with the police. This article presents a general overview of a two-pronged training approach designed to promote positive interactions between students with disabilities and police officers.
Law enforcement officers (LEOs) are likely to encounter people with disabilities (PWD) during calls for service. These interactions sometimes escalate situations involving PWD and may result in arrest or death due to a lack of disability awareness among LEOs. The purpose of this study was to explore the current perspectives of LEOs regarding PWD and to identify the current training needs of LEOs regarding disability awareness and interactions with PWD. This study utilized two focus groups, consisting of participants representing seven law enforcement agencies across a large, Western state. Results indicate that the perceptions and needs of the LEOs regarding PWD are shaped by four themes: (a) personal connections, (b) job experience, (c) training opportunities, and (d) training needs. Implications for policy and practice to enhance the rigor of disability awareness training for LEOs are described.
This project used psychosocial mentoring (Curtin et al., 2016) to create a collaborative mentoring experience prepare doctoral students to become the instructors of record. In the collaborative mentoring experience, we paired doctoral students with a faculty member teaching a class that the doctoral student aspired to teach. The doctoral student observed the faculty member teaching, engaged in discussions with the faculty member, and reflected on the process. The following semester, the doctoral student became the instructor of record for the course. Following this experience, two doctoral students and one faculty member completed a retrospective self-study through journaling and discussions. After analyzing the results through discussions, we identified three themes: (1) understanding the course and our learners, (2) underlying goals and processes involved in college teaching, and (3) stretching the scope of practice for instructors of record. This paper describes the theme of stretching the scope of practice for instructors of record. Implications for teaching and learning in higher education are discussed.
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