SPED Area Standards and Values

June 2024

Note: SPED Area Faculty have generated 10 standards and values to guide our interactions with each other, with students, with other faculty members and with staff. In doing so, each Special Education Area member makes a good faith effort to adhere to these standards and values during all aspects of our work in areas of teaching, research, service, and administration.  Special Education Area faculty also commit to reflecting on these standard and values from time to time and to realigning ourselves with these standards and values when our reflections reveal to us a discrepancy between our actions, interactions, and decisions and one or more of these standards and values. We invite colleagues, students, and others to engage with these same standards and values as we interact together within and beyond our UBC community.
 
  1. When we disagree with each other, we do so respectfully.
  2. We make decisions through a lens of equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and anti-racism (EDIDA).
  3. We maintain an authentic spirit of collaboration, being open and willing to let ourselves be influenced by others in the context of making decisions.
  4. We do our best to recognize and help combat ableism.
  5. We interact in ways that encourage each other in our respective endeavors; we recognize the qualities and valuable things we do and encourage these things.
  6. We have empathy and compassion toward others, understanding that everyone is doing their best.
  7. In all of our relationships, they are based on and show respect.
  8. We ensure that all of our actions as educators have an impact within and beyond the university; that is, an impact that is meaningful, durable and sustainable.
  9. We are committed to evidence-based practice (EBP); we are open to new knowledge and practices as new evidence accrues within our disciplinary areas.
  10. We understand the importance of creating psychologically safe spaces, and actively contribute to creating such spaces.
Addendum: Psychological Safety
  1. Definition of psychological safety (Clark 2020; Edmondson, 2019)
    1. A shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.
    2. A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.
    3. A condition in which you feel: (1) included; (2) safe to learn; (3) safe to contribute; and (4) safe to challenge the status quo – all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way.
  2. What psychological safety is not (Edmondson, 2019):
    1. It is not a personality difference: It refers to work climate
    2. It is not about being nice: It is about candor and productive disagreement and free exchange of ideas
    3. It is not another word for trust: Trust is experienced at the individual level; psychological safety is experienced at the group level.
    4. It is not about lowering performance standards: It sets the stage for a more honest, challenging and collaborative work environment and thus more effective work environment.
  3. In any organization that requires knowledge, especially one that requires integrating knowledge from diverse areas of expertise, psychological safety is a requirement for success (Edmondson, 2019)
  4. Current emphasis in organizations on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) makes creation of psychological safe workplaces an essential leadership responsibility. Across a wide variety of teams, psychological safety is essential for: (1) communicating; (2) collaborating; (3) experimenting; (4) innovating; and (5) ensuring wellbeing of others (Edmonton, 2019).
  5. Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, on psychological safety: https://youtu.be/eP6guvRt0U0
Bibliography

Clark, T. R. (2020). The 4 stages of psychological safety: Defining the path to inclusion and innovation. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Edmondson, A. C. (2019). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. Wiley & Sons.

Edmonson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999

Kostopoulos, K. C., & Bozionelos, N. (2011). Team exploratory and exploitative learning: Psychological safety, task conflict, and team performance. Group Organizational Management, 36, 385–415. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111405985

Wang, Y., Liu, J., & Zhu, Y. (2018). Humble leadership, psychological safety, knowledge sharing, and follower creativity: A cross-level investigation. Organizational Psychology, 9, 1-9. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01727

*To download the SPED Standards and Values document, please click here.

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