Self-Determined Learning, Personalizable Education, and Strengths-Based Approaches to Educating All Learners

Abstract

In November of 2019, I delivered the Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor Inaugural Lecture at the University of Kansas. The focus of that lecture were ideas I discussed in a book published through Teachers College Press earlier in that year titled Strength-Based Approaches to Educating All Learners with Disabilities: Beyond Special Education (Wehmeyer, 2019). I talked about Tom Gilhool in that book and the revolutionary impact of PARC and the parent movement on the opportunity for children and youth with disabilities having access to a free, appropriate education. In the book and the lecture, I discussed the fact that the context in which Gilhool and his peers created federal legislation to education learners with disabilities was significantly different than today, and that forces were converging that created opportunities to create meaningful change in how we educate all learners, including students with disabilities; how we go beyond special education, as the subtitle of the book suggested. In transcribing my inaugural distinguished professor lecture into a paper for this issue of Focus on Exceptional Children, I have opted to try to capture the experience for which that lecture was designed. That is, in my lecture, before an audience that included many people who do not know the field, I wanted to tell a story in equal part through words and images. This article will, as such, rely on images and a narrative that emphasizes a broad treatment and interpretation of historical events and future prognostications.