The keys to learning for university students with disabilities: Motivation, emotion and faculty-student relationships

The affective-emotional dimension may constitute a key element in teaching and learning processes. It is linked to relationship between faculty and students and may help foster students with disabilities’ motivation to learn and remain at university. This is the approach adopted in this article, which aims to fill a gap detected in the literature, since very little attention has hitherto been paid to motivation, emotion and the importance of faculty-student relationships in the learning processes of students with disabilities. In this study, 119 faculty members from 10 Spanish universities who engage in inclusive practices in all areas of knowledge recounted, in response to questions asked during a semi-structured interview, how they motivated and related to their students. The conclusion reached is that students with disabilities are more motivated than their fellow classmates, meaning that very few extra actions need to be taken to engage them in the learning process. Nevertheless, participants reported having a knowledge of strategies based on motivation and emotion and using them to develop a sense of belonging among students, thus fostering their learning.