The Research to Practice Gap
As a special educator, I struggled to find truly effective ways to support my students. I joined professional organizations, but didn’t have the time to sift through journals or navigate lengthy resource pages. I attended required professional development, yet it wasn’t always engaging—or useful.
Welcome to The Research to Practice Gap, a podcast created to bridge exactly that divide. Each month, I sit down with a researcher in the field of education to translate research into practical, evidence-based strategies and activities you can use in your classroom right away.
The Research to Practice Gap
Building Student Agency: Teaching Self-Determination in the Classroom
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Self-determination doesn't begin at age 14—it starts in the earliest years of school. In this episode, Laurie Williams-George explains how teachers can build student agency through simple, research-based practices that help students make decisions, advocate for themselves, and believe that their actions can shape their futures.
More from Laurie Williams George:
Raising Joy #62: Navigating the Online World with Neurodiverse Children | Laurie Williams George
Resources for Teachers:
6 Routines to Get Students Unstuck
Building Self-Determination in Childhood
Giving Students Meaningful Choices
Promoting Self-Determination in Early Childhood Services
Self-Advocacy and Self-Determination for Students With Disabilities Who Are English Learners
Strategies to Build Self-Determination Skills
Research & Background:
Adults with Autism and Employment Statistics
Day, N., Paas, F., Kervin, L., & Howard, S. J. (2022). A systematic scoping review of pre-school self-regulation interventions from a self-determination theory perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(4), 2454.
Feuer, B., Toste, J. R., & Fry, E. (2025). Representation of students of color with disabilities in self-determination intervention research. Exceptionality, 1-21.
Morán, M. L., Hagiwara, M., Raley, S. K., Alsaeed, A. H., Shogren, K. A., Qian, X., ... & Alcedo, M. Á. (2021). Self-determination of students with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review. Journal of Developmental and Physical D5isabilities, 33(6), 887-908.
Stansberry Brusnahan, L. L., Harkins Monaco, E. A., Fuller, M., & Dixon, K. (2023). Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Teaching intersectional self-determination skills with a focus on disability, social identity, and culture. Teaching Exceptional Children, 55(5), 324-336.
Artwork and logo by The Interior Gaze
Welcome to the Research to Practice Gap, a podcast that bridges the divide between research and classroom practice. I'm Dr. Helen Flores, and each episode I sit down with an expert whose work informs education and translate their insights into practical, evidence-based strategies you can use in your classroom right away. Today with me I have Lori Williams George. Lori is a teaching fellow and research assistant at the University of North Texas, where she is completing her PhD in special education. Her research takes a strengths-based approach to disability, inclusion, and support needs across the lifespan. She is especially interested in inclusive education, autism, and family systems, and the ways schools can build supports into everyday classroom practice. Lori's background is interdisciplinary. She began with training in language, philosophy, and biomedical ethics, earned a master's degree in teaching with an emphasis on cognitive theory and language acquisition, and spent more than a decade teaching English language learners before shifting her focus to developmental disabilities and research. She is also engaged in education policy, disability rights, and autism advocacy at the state and national levels. She lives in Fort Worth with her husband, three children, and a menagerie of pets. When she's not doing research, she's still doing Big Picture, her work is grounded in the belief that individuals are not problems to be fixed. We all encounter challenges. That is part of the human experience. What differs is the kind of risk each person faces and the protective factors and supports available to them. Welcome. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00Of course. Now let's jump in. In one or two sentences, what problem in education does your research aim to address?
SPEAKER_01Schools really expect students to become independent learners. And sometimes we lose sight of the fact that some kids really need to be explicitly taught those skills to become an independent learner. And so I've really gotten interested in how we can build self-determination early in general education classrooms so that all students, but in particular students with autism and students with other support needs, are not just learning to comply, but they are learning to act with agency because self-determination is a life outcome. It's not something you have or you don't have. And so we have to start building that early to give students the best chance at success throughout their life.
SPEAKER_00That's really interesting. And that makes a lot of sense. I always taught elementary school. And so, of course, when I was doing IEPs, it was like, oh, we don't need to figure out transition services till 14, till 16. We don't need to meaningfully involve students in their IEPs because they're in elementary school. And then later realizing how silly that is, because it's not like suddenly at 14, these skills are there. We need to work on them from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, exactly.
SPEAKER_00And what first drew you to this line of research? Was there a classroom moment that sparked it?
SPEAKER_01It really sits at an intersection of a lot of the things I care about, inclusion, individual empowerment, family systems, what I know about the everyday realities of teaching, that there's so much to do to shove into such a small amount of time with all of the demands that you know teachers are faced with. And I also saw from the student perspective, a lot of kids being described as not motivated or they're too dependent or they're non-compliant, specifically referring to kids with autism. And what they really needed was just explicit intentional teaching. And if I'm totally honest, I am guilty of babying my own kid. And that's my fault. I saw him as less capable. I think early on, I really held him back because of my lack of knowledge on how to teach him to be independent and the belief that he would just kind of learn it later. Or, you know, he was too young. He's he's too young to do that. He'll do it later. And, you know, here we are at 10 years old, and I'm still poking my head into the bathroom asking, Did you use shampoo? Did you wash your whole body? And, you know, that I can't do that his whole life. So it has to start early and it has to really be intentionally taught.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I'm with you on that one. I have two kids, and some of it is definitely personality, right? But my uh younger daughter was like born independent. Like, mommy, I don't need your help. I'm if it takes me all day, I'm gonna put on my own socks and shoes. And my son, um, mommy, can you put them on for me? And reflecting back, it's because I dressed him all the time instead of like letting him do that. And uh, who should care most about this research? Teachers, administrators, teacher educators, policymakers, and why?
SPEAKER_01But you know, I'm gonna say really all of those people. I feel like teachers should care because these are really practical things that they can do in the classroom. I'm not asking people to come up with an entirely new curriculum. These are very easy, small changes and skills that you can weave into the current curriculum. It is about embedding those really small, um repeatable practices into what they're already doing. Teacher educators should care because future teachers need to understand that support needs are not an exception to the rule. It's not whether you will encounter a student who needs these skills, it's when and probably right away. I think administrators and policymakers need to care because we often say that we value independence, inclusion, college and career readiness, but then we don't have accountability systems that express that they value those skills beyond academic outcomes. And if self-determination really matters, then it needs to be built into our systems as far as evaluating those outcomes. I think that also teaching undergraduates, I have students with accommodation needs. And those students are honestly more prepared to advocate for themselves because they have received at least some training. But I have so many undergraduates who, to my knowledge, at least they have not gone through the process of receiving accommodations. It's like they're not aware that they can reach out and communicate with me if they have a problem. They can say, this is what I need to feel better supported, or I'm having, I'm feeling stuck in this situation. What are the steps I should take to help myself get out of it? And, you know, these are adults and they've gone through their whole life without, you know, being being explicitly taught or at least called to their attention that these are things that we can do to be more ultimately more successful in life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's really interesting. I I did some work in my doctoral program. I read about there being a big cultural barrier within with self-determination as well, um, in terms of how we view authority and how we relate to authority.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I think specifically in the space that I'm looking at, which is early childhood and elementary, that family partnership is highly valued. You are focusing on developmentally appropriate self-determination skills, choice making, very simple problem solving, achievable, visible goals. And you are communicating with the family, but that cultural piece, the teacher needs to be aware of the family's values and what they consider to be culturally appropriate for that child at that age, because we may be dealing with a child who it's not appropriate for a child to expect to be given choices about what to eat for dinner or where they're going to sit at the table, or um, what color cup they're going to choose. And it's a balancing act. You know, there are ways to incorporate choices that are culturally appropriate, but we do want to respect those families because ultimately it is a partnership and those skills have to be developed in partnership with the parents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that makes a lot of sense. For listeners who aren't familiar with this line of research, what are two to three key findings or important facts?
SPEAKER_01The the first big idea is that self-determination is not just about making choices. I think that's the easiest, lowest hanging fruit, especially for younger children, or in the special education literature, self-determination is really about acting as the causal agent in your life, meaning you believe, you know, and believe that what you do has an influence on your life outcomes. And that means students learn to make choices. Yes. They set goals, they solve problems, they regulate their actions and behaviors, they understand their strengths and needs, they believe what they do can change things. The second important point I would say is developmental. Self-determination does not appear suddenly in high school, like we talked about earlier. It's not at age 14. Now we start doing this. Children build a foundation over time through supported opportunities to choose, problem solve, regulate, engage, reflect. And that means elementary school is not too early. It is exactly where we should start teaching these skills. Um, the third point, I would say autism specifically, autistic students can and should be supported in self-determination. In fact, they show less self-determination than their typically developing peers, but also peers with learning disabilities and peers with intellectual disability. So they really do need that support. They may need more explicit instruction, concrete visuals, and practice across contexts. So my point there with the autism specific is that my concern is that if we only teach on-task behavior or compliance, then with those students in particular, we're really missing that deeper goal, which is agency, knowing that they can control their life. I think the field of autism has been dominated for quite a while with behavioral science. I think the name of the podcast really gets to the to the heart of the issue that in education, we still really want to focus on those external behaviors. And while, yes, external behaviors are important, there are certainly behaviors that are not conducive to the classroom environment and they do need to be addressed. We've got to expand our goals for those kids so that we start proactively teaching them to take control of their life. Because, you know, ABA is a support, it's not a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. That really stuck out to me. The idea of teaching these skills early so that children feel that what they do matters in the course of their life. That's so powerful. I imagine that a lot of kids and students don't feel that way at all. I also have a question: is there a reason why specifically children with autism have a harder time with self-determination and advocacy skills?
SPEAKER_01Yes, kids with autism have a, and and I do not consider this a negative. You always hear rigid and repetitive behaviors. If you repetitively brush your teeth every morning, that's not a negative. It's serving your dental health, you know, or being rigid about making sure you eat five fruits and vegetables a day or go for a 20-minute walk. These are not, these are not negatives. Um, but kids with autism are also more susceptible to get into a negative pattern of behavior where they may have low stress tolerance. They get overwhelmed more easily. For example, they're working on a math problem and they get stuck. If the pattern develops and the rigid behavior becomes, I'm stuck, I quit, then it's a problem. And they are just more susceptible to developing those patterns, those patterns that are harder to break. So it's better, especially for kids with autism, to start early and give them skills and techniques to develop healthy patterns. And it also builds cognitive flexibility because while not every rigid behavior is bad, if it's not serving you, it can be. And so to have a little more cognitive flexibility there also helps you more easily get out of those behaviors that are not serving you well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I know you said it's not a matter of if teachers will encounter students with autism or advocacy needs, but when. And with the increase in diagnosis in autism and increase in inclusion in many states without a lot of support, this is definitely something that teachers are already encountering, whether they know that this is something that they need to know or not.
SPEAKER_01Right. I think the awareness around autism has really increased, which is a wonderful thing. And at the same time, because people have better access to diagnosis, they have more awareness, et cetera. And so we are seeing more students with what I think you we would describe as level one autism in the general education classroom. And there's an assumption that if you can sit in a chair and behave yourself and stay on track academically, then you're probably fine and you don't need those supports. And the message here is really no, they do. And you you need to teach it regardless. And if you're teaching everyone, you're benefiting everyone, they're all going to take something from it, but those few kids really, really need it. So it's never time wasted or not well spent in class.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So if a teacher is listening to this, what are two to three practices or strategies they could try in their classroom tomorrow?
SPEAKER_01So I have a paper that that's coming out later. And I talk about five high-leverage practices, but I chose just a few to talk about today. And so the first I would say is to offer bounded, meaningful choices. And when I say bounded, I mean not unlimited choices or fake choices, but giving students two to three options with a real learning goal. Do you want to show your thinking by drawing, writing, or explaining to a partner? Do you want to use a graphic organizer or a sentence stem? And then the key is to ask which option will help you do your best work today. So this, it's not about just allowing the kid to pick a favorite or what's easiest. So if kids like to draw, they're always choosing the drawing option. It's about getting them to think about the day-to-day choices that serve them the best. So an example, a parenting example with my own kids. After school, you have a snack. You can have goldfish as an afterschool snack. You could choose goldfish every day if you wanted to. That's a choice. But through this process, more often than not, my kids are going to choose um guacin chips or an apple because they have learned that their bodies need something more filling to last them through dinner time. So while, yes, goldfish are their favorite, and they could they could choose that every day. They have learned, you know what? It's not just about being able to pick goldfish every day. It's about what's going to serve me and my body. And if I choose guacan chips, I'm not complaining before dinner. I feel full. It makes them feel empowered. Like chose right, I did the right thing for me. And that's a great feeling.
SPEAKER_00That's really interesting because I remember learning about choice boards for projects. We're combining universal design for learning and multiple modes of expression and representation. But I feel like it stops there. We never go into the second part of what you said, which is which of these will allow you to show your learning the best? Because, you know, to me, when you were talking, I was like, oh, well, how does choice making really lead to these higher self-determination skills that you're talking about? Well, there it is. Now, knowing my body, knowing my brain, and how my choice leads to an end goal. It's not just a random choice. I right.
SPEAKER_01I offer a choice board in one of my online classes. And I talk about that with, you know, college students. Like, hey, don't just choose the paper because it's easy. Or if you choose the PowerPoint because you are creative, love that it's beautiful. This is a pretty PowerPoint. But did it help you process that information? Because that's the point of the choice, is to pick the avenue that helps you kind of mull over this new stuff and really get the most out of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_01So the second one is to make goals visible in a way that the students can actually use it. So I am a product of standards-based education training. So my master's program in teaching was all about state standards. And, you know, you write the state standard on the board and what's the learning objective and all that stuff. And I know sometimes when you get a list of things that you're required to do, it's kind of a check the box. Like, okay, I put it, you know, I put it up there. But instead of just posting the standards, you want to help the student answer, what am I working toward today? Or what am I working towards right now? What is success looking like? And then what should I do first? So the the visible goal, what am I working on? What does it success look like? When I meet that goal, what does it look like? And then what should I do first to get started? And that is a piece that a lot of students with autism will have some trouble with. Lots of kids have trouble with getting started. It helps everybody, but there is a sense of overwhelm there, especially if the goal is too distal or you know it's a big assignment or it's a difficult skill. So just a little help with where to start. So it turns the teacher's objective into a plan for the student. So, and then when a student is a little bit older, kindergarten first, second, then you can add that. Why is this personally meaningful to you? What why is this learning objective meaningful to you? So if the kids are gonna learn how to use a calculator that day. And you could ask that kid, why is it personally meaningful to you? And it's gonna be different for every kid. For my kid, really excited about using a calculator so that he could make change at a lemonade stand so that he could make money to buy V-Bucks. That was that was motivating. The third thing, so we got meaningful, bounded choices, making visible goals. And then the third is teaching a stuck routine and using it everywhere. So something universal, like stop, think, try, check. And then the key is to practice when students are calm. So model when it's something really easy, and then use that same language in across reading, math, transitioning from lunch to the playground, group work, social skills, problem solving. That's building the routine for a student with autism that's a healthy routine. If you're susceptible to rigid behaviors or getting ingrained in routines, okay, let's use that and let's make it beneficial for you. So I'm gonna I'm gonna teach you a routine to process when you're stuck in a problem. Stop, think, try, check.
SPEAKER_00That's great. I love those. Do you have any more concrete examples you want to share?
SPEAKER_01Let's say you're um working on some writing. So the teacher might say, uh, today our goals is to add one detail that will help the reader picture the setting. Success means your paragraph will include one sentence that tells where the character is, what the place looks like, or what the character notices. So first, reread your paragraph and put a star where a setting detail could go. Then choose a support that will help you add to your details. You can use a word bank, look at a picture card to get an idea, or rehearse your sentence with a partner before you write it down. So you have what our this is what our goal is, this is what success looks like. You got a choice embedded in there, and then you have a step. This is what you need to do now. Go. Another one might be during a math problem. Instead of saying, Oh, it looks like you're having trouble, keep at it, keep trying, I know you can do it. A teacher might point to the stuck routine and say, Hey, name where you got stuck. Where did where did you first start having a problem? Choose one of these strategies that you know we've talked about, and it might be some chart paper with some things that you've previously taught. Um, because when you do that, the teacher is teaching the student that being stuck is not a failure. It's a signal that you can use a strategy. There's something that you can do. You don't have to say, I don't know what to do, I quit. Um and like I said, I think that's especially important for kids with autism who can be susceptible to low stress tolerance and need to be supported with building that cognitive flexibility. For help seeking, I know a lot of kids, if they're having trouble, they'll just kind of sit because they're not really sure what's wrong or how to get the help. And using a sentence stem, I need blank because blank. I think giving them that language, in particular, um, students who might be using C devices, you might um add in those choices or those options that you have previously taught into their device. Or if they're just not feeling talkative that day, they can rely on that sentence then to kind of reduce that cognitive load and verbalize what they need to ask for help.
SPEAKER_00Those are awesome. It would a hundred percent help the kids on the spectrum, the kids with IEPs, but it would help everyone. And I imagine once you have those things set up in your classroom, they really must save so much time because then you're not answering all of the questions. I remember I used to get frustrated. I taught multi grade levels since I was in a self-contained setting. So I'd do a brief whole group and then center, rotate centers, kids would be individual or with paras, and I would get stopped constantly with questions. And so setting up those supports and those stuck routines, I imagine creates a much easier classroom. The teacher as well.
SPEAKER_01Right. And two things. One, it may take a little time to build those structures, but you can build them within the content still. So you're not taking this extra time to do something totally different. You may be taking a little extra time within reading or within math, but you can still stay on target with your content while you're doing this. The other thing I wanted to say was I always hear three before me to prevent questions. And we're, I think the message that we're not really admitting to is I think they know the answer, but they're just not doing it. They want to rely on me. So whether you want to call that laziness or learned helplessness or over reliance, um, we're really just putting up a barrier. Like if you want to bug me that bad, you better bug three other people first. But we're what we're really telling them is that it's a hassle. Solving a problem is your problem. It's not my problem. And we're not giving them any explicit skills or techniques that are effective. We're just asking them to pass it on to three other people first, who let's face it, are also eight-year-olds and probably do not know the answer, you know? So seems like one of those really effective strategies and it rhymes, so it's very fun, but it doesn't really get at the heart of self-determination.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. Those were great. And if you have any more to say on grade levels, content areas, or student populations where this research is especially impactful.
SPEAKER_01I would say it is definitely relevant across all grades. And, you know, we've already touched on the fact that it's relevant for college kids. It's relevant for adults who are getting their PhD or who already have it. But my focus in this research specifically has been those younger kids. Using a lot of early developmental work with self-determination on identifying those developmentally appropriate self-determination skills because they're not all appropriate for a six or seven-year-old. So you may, as a special education teacher who teaches transition, you may be thinking, well, yeah, that's not okay for a six-year-old. And I mean, you're right, but there are definitely many that are, and you got to start somewhere.
SPEAKER_00How has your own thinking as a researcher or educator changed because of this work?
SPEAKER_01One, I used to think about self-determination as more of a set of isolated component skills. I don't think I really saw it as a roadmap or a plan for building agency. I saw it as isolated, you know, goal setting, choice making, self-advocacy. And I still think those skills are important. And I am advocating that they need to be explicitly taught, but I think I have a better understanding of the purpose of that, which is building that agency. You can teach a student to complete a checklist and be compliant. A student can make a choice and still have no real control in life or feel that they have control. They can monitor behavior and still not understand their strengths, their needs, or have any strategies to control their behavior. So I've really shifted away from are we teaching this skill to are we teaching the skill in a way that helps students become more causal agents in their own life? And to me, that is the exciting part as someone who really is interested in autism from a human lifespan perspective. How do we really enrich someone's life the entire way through? You know, we don't want to wait until they leave secondary school because like 80% of autistic individuals are unemployed. And that is really out of whack with what an individual's capabilities are.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense because that's exactly how I viewed it is just these add-on skills we're throwing in there, invite them to the IEP, tell them what their accommodations are, and have them advocate in class. But meaningfully, how does that really translate to outside of a school?
SPEAKER_01We um, my son, I have my oldest son, has ADHD and dyslexia. And so he has a 504 plan and he has accommodations. And I really thought I was doing good with him knowing what his accommodations are. He has a teacher who they had a great relationship. This was not on purpose in any way, but she kind of made a joke with him, and it may have clued some other students in on the fact that he had a 504 plan. That was not intentional, and I think it it bothered him a little bit. And so we talked through how to have that conversation with her that, hey, my information is private. I I like you as a teacher, and we have a good relationship, and you didn't mean that. Would you please not talk about that again? But I I really thought I was doing well having those discussions and him knowing that he has the right to ask to sit up front so that he can pay attention or whatever. I do think too that as you know, thinking of my son specifically as a as a 12-year-old, you know, or middle school boy behavior. So I don't doubt that while working on trying to advocate for himself, he could come across as rude or challenging authority. And so to be the teacher and have the wisdom to say, hey, let's go, let's go talk in private or hang after class and let's talk it through. Here's an ex here's an here's an example of how we can have that conversation in a way that respects me as the teacher in front of the class, or, you know, and here's an example of of what is not going to work. And example, non-example is a really powerful tool for everyone, but especially um for kids with neurodiversities, autism, media, helping them work through that instead of jumping to you challenge me in front of the entire class, and that's inappropriate.
SPEAKER_00What questions remain unanswered and what are you studying next?
SPEAKER_01So I would say what remains unanswered is that we do have the research, but we really need more clarity about what implementation looks like, who's teaching these skills, where they're being taught, how they're being adapted, um, and whether the outcomes that we're measuring are actually capturing agency, or if it's just compliance and then those isolated skills. I also think that when teachers do take these really high-leverage practices and work them into the classroom and they're already doing it naturally, is there a way to measure that? You know, there are still big questions about environment supports and protective factors. And I'm really interested in how families build happy, healthy lives for their autistic children and every other child in their house. And so the kind of culminating strand of both lines of research is asking what are the adult practices that are occurring at school or in the home that are helping children experience success without being treated as problems that need to be fixed.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Is there anything else you wanted to add? Um well, we sort of already touched on this.
SPEAKER_01Um I think one misconception about self-determination um is maybe a misunderstanding of what independence is. So people may assume that independence is basically completely unsupported solitary activity. So then the child doesn't get the support that they really need. The other view of that is well, I know this child will never be capable of that completely unsupported independence. So why bother? And that's not what self-determination is. It is the belief that you have control over your life. And that doesn't mean that you don't ever receive support. We all receive support. One of the best examples of self-determination that I've ever seen was a panel of the university that I work at has a post-secondary program for students with IDD. And they came in and participated in a panel for an undergraduate class that I had on transition. And those students were so in control of their life. I remember one of them was saying, he's like, part of this program is job training. And I want to be in landscaping, and I have yet to learn anything about where these types of plants go, in the shade or in the sun, or whatever. I'm picking weeds, and I really expected to be learning more by now. He was calling out that he's like, You promised me this, and it has not happened yet. And I need to let you know that you're not meeting my expectations. And I just thought that was amazing. He knew what he wanted, and he he did so respectfully, expressed that he wasn't getting it, and he wasn't getting the support that he was told he would get. Um, and that's really cool. And that's more self-determination than I've seen from many adults. And so it's definitely not about getting someone to the point of being on an island where they're they're just doing everything themselves.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna really have to sit with that, but I'm I'm so glad you brought up the misconception between independence and self-determination, because I think that's news to me sitting here today. Self-determination makes me think of independent living skills, not that I have H and C over my own life. And that story you just shared, I don't think the majority of my college students that have no accommodations, no documented disability, whatever it may be, would maybe even know how to articulate that because that's not what we focus on. We do focus on the independence. Can you figure it out on your own and not the supports that someone might need to get there and advocate? Yeah. Thank you. I'm gonna I have to sit with all of this. I'm gonna be thinking about this for the next few days.
SPEAKER_01Before we go, where can educators go to learn more about your work? Well, um, so hopefully I'll be able to provide you an update that the systematic review that I conducted with a few colleagues of mine, Kayla Cannis and um Kaylee Smith, will be accepted and published soon, um, as well as a practitioner paper that I'm working on with Dr. Kate Bailey. Uh, but until then, I I have a website called Parent with Merit. I started it way back during my advocacy journey, and it was really about helping parents close the gap between something seems different to getting support. And I have expanded that to teaching with merit. And it just really means teaching with integrity, teaching with intention, and honoring the fact that you can do this well and you can do it in a way that respects your students.
SPEAKER_00Any studies or research and uh strategies and all of these websites, I'll link in the show notes so everyone has access to them. Thank you so much for joining me on this podcast. This has been a fantastic episode. I've learned so much. I'm excited to sit with this and consider how I'm gonna apply it for my children as well as my pre-service teachers. Yeah, thank you. This was fun. Thank you for listening to the research to practice. If this episode challenged your thinking or gave you something practical to try, share it with a fellow educator. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube and Facebook at the research to practice.