HomeBlogSupporting Neurodivergent and Physically Disabled Students Education Demands an Unwavering Commitment to Equity by Caroline J. KetchamJuly 4, 2025 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionBlog Home AI and Engaged Learning Assessment of Learning Capstone Experiences CEL News CEL Retrospectives CEL Reviews Collaborative Projects and Assignments Community-Based Learning Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity ePortfolio Feedback First-Year Experiences Global Learning Health Sciences High Impact Practices Immersive Learning Internships Learning Communities Mentoring Relationships Online Education Place-Based Learning Professional and Continuing Education Publishing SoTL Reflection and Metacognition Relationships Residential Learning Communities Service-Learning Signature Work Student Leadership Student-Faculty Partnership Studying EL Supporting Neurodivergent and Physically Disabled Students Undergraduate Research Work-Integrated Learning Writing Transfer in and beyond the University Style Guide for Posts to the Center for Engaged Learning Blog Education demands an unwavering commitment to mission, values, and our everyday practices to provide students with information, knowledge, and perspectives from a variety of positionalities and people. I hope this commitment to mission withstands this messy political and societal season of American education systems. To be clear, I do not support dismantling the Department of Education or diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and ideals. Providing quality education for all is central to American values. And while the systems to support these values are being attacked, the people implementing these ideals in our classrooms and our children remain committed. I can’t sugarcoat that it is all going to be OK. It will for some—including my autistic, white, male son; we have the resources and identity to be OK. It is going to take people to lead with values and care and conviction. Individuals with skills, organizations with resources. We have the power to provide these ideals and rise above fear. The leaders trying to rip these values and practices from our institutions fear our power and fear their weakness. How do we lean into everyday practices to uphold a commitment to education? How do we do this for our most vulnerable as their identities are devalued in the headlines and funding sources? It is and has to be about the practices we can use every day and in our organizations. Shared Equity Leadership I want to introduce (or reintroduce for some) the Shared Equity Leadership model of values and practices that we can each implement in our everyday and organizations to support education and our commitment to the mission of education. This is a framework that requires individual introspection and collective action (see figure 1). Figure 1. Shared Equity Leadership Model. Reproduced from Kezar, Holcombe, and Vigil (2022), originally published by the American Council on Education. This model illustrates how responsibility for advancing equity can be distributed across institutional actors, emphasizing collective leadership and accountability. This is a framework I have been engaging with alongside colleagues over the last year. The goal is to identify the values and practices that help us both understand and center students’ needs. We are currently thinking about how this model can be used as a training tool to support neurodivergent students and colleagues on our campus. I am additionally thinking about how it can support my son and his classmates in extended content settings in our public schools. Here are a few highlights from the framework with thoughts: Building Trust and Cultivating Positive Relationships Our students look to educators as one of the first arms of trust outside their families. Helping students learn, laugh, and lead with love begins with the earliest teachers, whom we all hope will influence them in positive ways. Teachers need opportunities and training to support students from diverse backgrounds who have complex needs. These are some of the first spaces where our kids can practice failing and practice trying again and succeeding. As a college professor, I think about this a lot. So many of our students are terrified of failing, of anything but perfection, of not being enough. These fears are integrated in complicated ways into who they are and who they think society wants them to be. It is our teachers, our peers, and our classrooms that can model being enough by being exactly who you are. This fabric of humanity is who America is. Keep that at the heart of education. Using Language Intentionally, Setting Expectations, Listening This demands clear, direct communication and honoring that clarity and honesty is kind. It’s through this lens that growth and self-awareness become visible from an outside perspective. What feedback is useful to help individuals and communities grow? These are both important in our education contexts and happen in individual classrooms and our educational institutions. We can train for this and support this with a commitment from and by our educators and administrators. Learning, Helping Others Learn, Modeling In education settings, students are watching and emulating. If you are an instructor who cannot respectfully engage with different perspectives and give value and voice to all your students in meaningful ways, guess what? Students are watching. If you have difficulty taking feedback and engaging in self-awareness, students are watching. In our commitment to education, we have to look inward and work on the values that ground us in this work: love and care, courage, accountability, vulnerability, and so on. Challenge the Status Quo and Structural Components These are constructs that may happen best at the organizational level and be challenged in times where our systems are being dismantled. I encourage us to find the small ways and spaces to do it. Aim to make decisions with a systems lens, questioning and disrupting the system before blaming or shaming an individual. Hire leaders from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, build teams that collaborate which disrupts hierarchical structures and incentives. Hold yourself and each other accountable. Create cultures that call people into practice and learn instead of calling people out with judgement and disrespect. Let’s Talk I remain optimistic and hopeful while I stay vigilant and vocal. I know the conversations I have daily with students and faculty colleagues matter and continue to lead with love, care, humility, and courage. Ever want to chat? I like coffee, wine, and outdoor spaces—and I’m always happy to meet you where you are and find space to grow together. References Kezar, Adrianna, Elizabeth Holcombe, and Darsella Vigil. 2022. Shared Responsibility Means Shared Accountability: Rethinking Accountability Within Shared Equity Leadership. Washington, DC: American Council on Education. Further Reading For many more resources about Shared Equity Leadership, visit the Shared Equity Leadership in Higher Education project page. About the Author Caroline J. Ketcham is a professor of Exercise Science at Elon University and a seminar leader for the 2024–2026 CEL Research Seminar on Affirming and Inclusive Engaged Learning for Neurodivergent Students. She served as the 2021–2023 CEL Scholar, focusing on Supporting Neurodiverse and Physically Disabled Students in Engaged Learning. In 2023, she received Elon’s Distinguished Scholar Award. How to Cite this Post Ketcham, Caroline J. 2025. “Education Demands an Unwavering Commitment to Equity.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog), Elon University. July 4, 2025. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/education-demands-an-unwavering-commitment-to-equity.
