FACULTY EXCELLENCE
DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AND RESEARCH Education Course Dispels Disability Stigma Through Inclusion
Trinity faculty are passionate teachers, active researchers, and caring mentors. Their commitment and diligence are strengths for the University, helping students develop the skills required to enter the market and succeed in post-graduate plans.
Individuals with disabilities are often stigmatized
and marginalized. One Trinity course strives to change these mindsets by preparing future teachers to focus on inclusion. Taught by education professor Heather Haynes Smith ’97, M’98, “Understanding Learners with Exceptionalities in School and Society” is not like the typical “introduction to special education” course. The first indication is in the title: Smith prefers the term “exceptionality” to “disability” to account for all students who may struggle with learning. “Society uses labels that can be very stigmatizing,” says Madison Carolin ’20, a psychology major who is now pursuing the Master of Arts in Teaching at Trinity with a supplemental certificate in special education. “The course is an introduction to the complexity that is often just boiled down to two words—special education—which is another label that can be limiting to students and their abilities.” “Most introductory courses in special education use a textbook and cover a different disability every week,” says Smith, who has taught the course in some form for the past 10 years. “I began refining the view of disability categories in a way that focused on strengths, characteristics, and instructional accommodations and modifications, which helps students in the course recognize equity issues and frame their learning and goals around social justice.” For the service-learning component of the course, students partner with a local organization to expand their worldview outside the classroom. “This course reflects the reality that people with disabilities are marginalized in all spaces, not just schools,” she says. “It is my hope that the learning in this course stays with my students in whatever their future careers are.” 12 Trinity University
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations awarded Trinity a $275,000 grant to help
department chairs address University needs and develop their leadership skills. Extending through May 2022, the funds will support 10 department chairs who will each direct a project to create institutional change of their own design.
Kimberley Phillips, psychology professor and director for
the neuroscience program, has been awarded a five-year, $1.4 million grant by the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
Jennifer P. Mathews, sociology and anthropology professor,
was selected as a 2020 Piper Professor. Only 10 college professors in Texas are chosen annually for this honor, which recognizes superior teaching.
