The Role of Regional Culture on the Academic Success of People with D isabilities

1. The Role of Regional Culture on the Academic Success of People with Disabilities Leah Colsch Sociology RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS INTRODUCTION METHOD AND RESULTS The sociological research on people with disabilities is limited, yet the population is one that continues to grow, and there has been shifts in the society with regulating laws and behavior with this population. These have helped the population increase independence. The success rates of these lives differ amongst countries, and this research explores the cultural difference of educational success. This research will clarify the regional effects on educational outcomes for people with disabilities. • Hypothesis was supported, and the region of the respondent did have an effect on the educational success of people with disabilities. • There is a significant effect (at the .01 level) on number of school years completed if one lives in the southern regions of the United States. • Students with disabilities had fewer years of schooling if they lived in southern regions as compared to northern regions. • This research clarifies the strength of cultural differences and the effects on educational attainment for people with disabilities. This can be used as a starting point for future research with this population. • Data • Data from the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) was used to test the relationship between regional differences and the educational outcomes of people with disabilities. • Hypothesis • H1: Regional differences of educational outcomes for people with disabilities will exist. • Tests • An ANOVA test was ran to highlight the difference in average years completed by people with disabilities across regions of the United States. Regional Culture STUDY AIMS Views on Disabilities To better understand and highlight the cultural effects on academic success for people with disabilities. To find significant relationship between educational outcomes of people with disabilities within regions of the United States. InclusiveEducation Results FUTURE RESEARCH Figure 1: Theoretical Table LITERATURE REVIEW 2006 GSS Data set only covers regions in the United States. Future research should examine the regional differences in education outcomes across nations. Disabilities is determined by the respondent. The severity of the disability is unknown. There are other regional differences such as quality of education and socioeconomic status that can affect the educational outcome as well. In the future, it would be beneficial to see the programs of inclusive education within the United States regions. This would help clearly define the effects of the inclusive education. Different countries around the world have different views of disabilities. A physical disability may not be seen as a disability in another country. The behaviors and reactions to this vary with their views (Kataoka, 2004; Samadi, 2011; Jang, 2013). With the different views, the way they handle education for people with disabilities varies as well. Some countries have no official training for teachers, while some have classrooms with wide range of disabilities (Johnstone, 2009; Miller, 2012; Staples, 2012). Despite the lack of inclusive education in most countries today, there is an overall want for more funding to provide special education training to better the skills of teachers, doctors, government officials and parents (Thorpe, 2010; Schuelka, 2012; Malak, 2013). Results REFERENCES Ackoff, Russel L. 1968. “The Role of Research in Underdeveloped Countries.” Operations Research. 16:4 717-726. Gokdere, Murat. 2012. “A Comparative Study of the Attitude, Concern, and Interaction Levels of Elementary School Teachers and Teacher Candidates towards Inclusive Education.” Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice. 2801-2805. Jang, Yuh, Yun-Tung Wang, Meng-Hsiu Lin and Kevin J. 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Schuelka, Matthew J. 2012. “Inclusive Education in Bhutan: A Small State with Alternative Priorities.” Current Issues in Comparative Education. 15(1):145-156. Staples, James. 2012 “Culture and Carelessness.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 26(4): 557-571 Thorpe, Anthony. 2010. “Teachers’ Perceptions of Inclusive Education in Mainstream Primary Schools in the United Kingdom.” The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. 5(3):163-171. Yang, P., Y-J. Jong, H-y Hsu, & F-W Lunge. 2011. “Role of assessment tests in the stability of intelligence scoring of pre-school children with uneven/delayed cognitive profile.” Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. 55(5):453-461 2009. “Autism Research.” Indian J Med Sci. 63(3):127-128. For more information, please contact: Leah Colsch Leah.colsch@loras.edu Table 1: ANOVA Results of All Disabilities and Number of School Years Completed compared among Geographical Regions in the United States LORAS.EDU