Journal of Management Education
2017, Vol. 41(1) 3–8
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1052562916680386
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Editors’ Corner
How to Be a
Superhero: Engaging
Students With Learning
Disabilities in Our
Classrooms
Kathy Lund Dean
1
and Jeanie M. Forray
2
At the start of each semester, we become reacquainted with students’ varied
learning needs in each different section of each different course. It is also a time
in the semester where we are made aware of students with specific learning
difficulties, usually via private conversations with them, classroom observa-
tions, and letters from our intrepid student disabilities services folks. But, what
does student learning “accommodation” mean as a broadly based construct for
management educators? What does the growing population of students in col-
lege who have learning disabilities (LDs) mean for each of us? How do we
respond positively but equitably to student needs as a balance to strike between
those who need more help and those who do not? Ultimately, we are consider-
ing what caring looks like for students in need, and how some best practices
could allow us to have a superhero-like impact on those students.
The range of student learning abilities in our classrooms continues to grow
(Krupnick, 2014). Due in large part to better and earlier LD diagnoses for
students, coupled with increased breadth in recruiting efforts at a postsecond-
ary level, it is likely that more of us have more students with LDs in our
classes even when they are not “officially” reported. Each semester, the real-
ity of such variety raises questions about how we should respond to different
student learning needs: what we must do (considering the law), what we
1
Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, USA
2
Western New England University, Springfield, MA, USA
Corresponding Author:
Kathy Lund Dean, Gustavus Adolphus College, 800 West College, St. Peter, MN 56082, USA.
Email: editor@obts.org
680386JME XX X 10.1177/1052562916680386Journal of Management EducationLund Dean & Forray
editorial 2016