The purpose of this study was to propose a substantial theory to describe the kind of experiences and change processes disabled students go through in a university environment.
This research conducted an in-depth interview of a total of 12 juniors a...
The purpose of this study was to propose a substantial theory to describe the kind of experiences and change processes disabled students go through in a university environment.
This research conducted an in-depth interview of a total of 12 juniors and seniors with disabilities in Seoul and Choongchong area. Collected data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach(Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The grounded theory presented a study question, "What do the disabled university students experience through college life and what change processes do they go through?" to depict the reality participants faced and explore the change processes along the time flow.
The results were presented as the following: 155 concepts, 55 sub-categories, and 20 categories were drawn from open coding. The causal conditions of the change process of the disabled students through college life were ‘feeling uncomfortable in an autonomous environment’ and ‘not being understood and cared for enough with all my needs considered.’ The central phenomenon was ‘being distressed at the reality faced disability.’ And a contextual condition which affected the central phenomenon was ‘being aware of the biased view of others’ and ‘having lived without a full awareness of my disability.’ Action or interaction strategies they used to deal with the central phenomenon was to ‘putting my best foot forward in what I do’, ‘carrying out living by oneself’, ‘building relationships with a open heart and ears’, ‘adapting things to fit for me’, ‘getting rid of greed.’ These strategies were found to be facilitated by mediating conditions such as ‘having a support network,’ ‘having a challenging spirit and will to excel in what I do’, ‘being ambitious of and motivated to college life’, ‘wanting to be freed from burnout.’ And the results followed were ‘gaining experiences of being accepted as I am’, ‘confidence built followed by making achievements’, ‘the weight of disability having become bearable’, ‘having genuine encounters with others resulted from being released from self-centeredness’, ‘Having a sense of mission for the disabled’, ‘realizing yet unsolved tasks.’ On the other hand, the change processes of the disabled students through college life were found to be ‘realization phase in which internal and outward barriers of disability are realized’, ‘trial and acquisition phase’, ‘internalization phase in which accepted and achieving experiences are taken in’, ‘re-establishment phase’, and ‘extension phase.’
Realization phase is the period when students with disabilities came to realize the internal and outward barriers of disability. In an autonomous university surrounding, they did not feel free or comfortable due to the disabilities. They had to let others know of the disabilities, faced difficulties when they studied and took exams, and gave up ‘things they wanted to do’ under various constraints from disabilities. Moreover, they felt that they were not fully understood by friends or professors. Since they had neither reflected on their disabilities nor established a certain point of view regarding the matter before, the more they became aware of the biases others had towards the disabilities, the more they suffered from the coldness of the reality. That is, they did not want to admit the limitations of disabilities, were burdened by the weight of disabilities, felt barriers to relationships, and bore a burden as a disabled representative.
Trial and acquisition phase is the period when students with disabilities came to experience and learn a lot of different things through various attempts to remove the barriers. They used several strategies for it. First, they applied a strategy which was to try their best both in study and relationship. In studying and working, they worked harder than or as hard as non-disabled students. In building relationship, they challenged themselves by getting next to others, trying to form and maintain a relationship when someone came up, opening up themselves to others, graciously offering help to friends what they could, making an effort of solving conflicts on their own. Besides, they ventured to decide on their own and go for a trip or retreat without being accompanied by their parents. They also exercised flexibility in making a choice; they explored a variety of options and chose the best among them. Sometimes, they exhibited a strategy to be freed from greed. The strategies used in this phase were parental support and trust, faith, university’s disability equality policy, a challenging spirit and will to excel, an ambition and motivation of college life, eagerness to be released from burnout.
Internalization phase is the period when students with disabilities came to internalize ‘experiences of being accepted’ and ‘achieving experiences’ after having exerted efforts on study and work. While building and maintaining relationships with others(non-disabled or disabled friends and professors), they gained experiences that they were no different from others and that they received genuine understanding and care by others and that they were just loved for what they are no matter how they were and that they shared the hardest ever to tell with others. Through these crucial experiences, they could remove the long-existed barriers to relationship and accept their disabilities. Moreover, as successful experiences of study and work increased, the thinking, ‘I can succeed in whatever I try’ was corrected to ‘my past experiences tell that even I can accomplish it’ and confidence was raised.
Re-establishment phase is the period when students with disabilities re-establish themselves after realizing that disability is no longer an obstacle to relationship and study. At this phase, they took their disabilities as a part of their own, got freed from thinking that one should always be helped, gained real or applicable image of the disabled, incorporated strengths and weaknesses of being disabled, were released from compensation-seeking mentality and came to be less concerned about others’ attentions. And as they experienced more ‘things possible’ than things not and did ‘what they wanted to do,’ they came to feel freer and more satisfied.
The last phase is where students with disabilities came to have a far greater interest in others and society. Since they had already experienced that they had been accepted by others, they could also accept others as they were. And because they now had significant others, they came to have a mind of wider grasp to embrace others who had no idea of or lacked understanding of the disabled. They also came to have an integrated perspective towards others, could better empathize with them, thus building a deeper relationship. Furthermore, they now desired to set a pace for other students with disabilities and were filled with a sense of mission to represent the rights of the disabled in society. At the same time, however, they worried about social barriers they thought they would face in the future.
The core category found in the disabled students’ change process during college years was ‘to establish and expand self by accepting disability through relationship-building and achievement experiences in an autonomous university environment.’ In the surrounding, they first encountered internal and outward obstacles caused by disability, but grew to handle it through the newly-made relationships and achievements. And they went through the processes of integrating and expanding themselves.
This paper’s findings will provide practical help to university students with disabilities including entrants in growth and development. Regarding the field of counseling, it could propose counseling intervention directions and provide a blueprint for counselor education and counselor’s role in the area.