Rebecca Kolb

Positionality Statement

As a staff member who teaches students at the University, it’s important for me to acknowledge the significant privilege I hold. As an educated, cisgendered, married white woman from a middle class background with parents who also have higher education degrees, I have had to access many things that many others who have less privilege have been denied. In my many years of teaching I have witnessed the way these differences in access to privilege negatively impact the diverse students who join my classroom community. I aim to use my privilege in the classroom and beyond to add to important work toward liberation for all people who have been marginalized due to their identities. I recognize the importance of using the privilege I hold to engage actively in efforts towards creating a more just society. I have sought opportunities to learn about, understand, and unpack my privilege and consider the ways it impacts how I show up in the world. This is ongoing work I will continue to engage in. In particular, I am committed to apply this learning and action to my teaching, mentorship, and engagement with the community through my role at the University of Minnesota.

Work

I received my PhD in behavior analysis from Western Michigan University and am a board certified behavior analyst at the doctoral level. Post graduation, I completed three years of postdoctoral training in the special education program at University of Minnesota. In my current position, I serve as a lecturer in the special education program teaching primarily in the MA in ABA course sequence. I also serve as the coordinator for student ABA fieldwork placements, grant coordinator for the PRABA LEAP OSEP training grant, co-coordinator of the MA in ABA program, and as a collaborator on research within the CARE ABA Lab.

If I had to sum up my teaching philosophy in one sentence it would be that all students can learn and all instructors can learn a tremendous amount from their students. I believe that many students in higher education are unsuccessful because we don’t always structure our courses to set them up for success. It is humbling to be responsible for something as important as student learning, and as a result, my approach is to use evidence-based methodology with a focus on high levels of student engagement. Inclusivity in the classroom is an important foundation of my teaching and as a result I incorporate universal design principles into course design and seek to create a bi-directional learning relationship with the students I get the privilege to teach. Many of the strategies I use in the classroom are based on bell hooks’ philosophy/approach to teaching and classroom engagement. Particularly given the vast inequities present in our society, I see designing courses that are accessible for all students as part of moving toward equitable higher education spaces. Another way I seek to move toward equitable higher education spaces is ensuring the content in my courses includes a diverse set of voices and perspectives and has been evaluated through an anti-racist and anti-ableist lens. Embedding content on cultural responsiveness, anti-racism, and anti-ableism as well as a variety of other “isms” is one way I seek to accomplish this. All students who come into my classrooms are unique and the diversity they bring in knowledge, expertise, and lived experience is an asset to the learning space both for me and fellow students.

Although above and beyond my current role, I also conduct research as part of the Department of Educational Psychology's CARE ABA Lab. My research interests focus globally on skill building and reducing interfering behavior for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Within this area I am interested in the following: 1) exploring generalization and the long term maintenance of intervention gains 2) incorporating cultural humility practices into the assessment and intervention process and exploring the impact of this on outcomes, and 3) increasing autonomy and self-determination of individuals with disabilities globally. I am also interested in incorporating neurodiversity affirming practices into applied behavior analytic service delivery including client/person centered approaches, the application of assent-based practices, application of culturally responsive approaches, and implementation of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) approaches.

Teaching

• EPSY 5659- Foundations of Behavior Analysis
• EPSY 8708- Functional Behavior Assessment
• EPSY 5623- Ethics for Behavior Analysts
• EPSY 8994- Applied Behavior Analysis: Skill Building Assessment & Teaching Programs in Applied Settings
• EPSY 2601- Understanding Differences, Disabilities, and the Career of Special Education