Doctoral Students' Perceptions of Self-Determination for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate special education doctoral students' perceptions of self-determination for students with disabilities. This study is designed to examine what doctoral students who are preparing for the future role as faculty in special education know about self-determination and their views related its importance in their own studies and in future teaching. Specifically, this study identifies doctoral students' knowledge of and general attitude toward self-determination. For this, an extensive literature review has been conducted in the area of self-determination for students with disabilities. This study uses the Doctoral Student's Perceptions of Self-Determination for Students with Disabilities survey (Kim, in press). The survey was developed to gather information about doctoral students' perceptions of self-determination for students with disabilities. Ninety-nine doctoral students majoring in special education completed the survey. The results of this study suggested that the high number of special education doctoral students as pre-faculty members in special education departments indicated they understood the definition and components of self-determination. However, they need to have more sufficient knowledge about self-determination such as assessment, curricula, issues and trends. In addition, the results indicated that a majority of the doctoral students believed that self-determination is one of the most important skill sets acquired by students with disabilities, and they were willing to integrate self-determination knowledge and skills into their future teaching. Finally, limitations of this study and implications for further research are discussed.