Despite legislation being consistently passed to support post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities, year after year since the completion of The National Longitudinal Transition Studies, national employment statistics continually demonstrate that implementation of intentions is wanting. A large percentage —50-60%— of adults with visual impairments (VI) remain under-or unemployed (Bell & Silverman, 2018; McDonnall & Sui, 2019; Yang & Tan, 2022). A lack of meaningful employment creates barriers to self-sufficiency, which can reduce overall quality of life. In 1996, Hatlen conceptualized the expanded core curriculum (ECC), which is comprised of nine essential areas in which students with visual impairments may require direct instruction to grow into independent adults living an enviable life. One of the ECC areas is self-determination. Self-determination instruction can support and lead to positive post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities. In 2007, the Council for Expectational Children (CEC) added the ECC as a competency area for all teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) to be trained and proficient in (Spungin et al., 2007). The only study examining TVIs' understanding and instructional practices regarding self-determination was conducted by Agran, Hong, and Blankenship in 2007. To build on their findings, the primary objectives of this study were to explore whether the passage of time and expected changes in teacher preparation have influenced teachers' understanding of self-determination and their instructional practices of self-determination. The TVI survey study on self-determination by Agran and colleagues (2007) served as the foundation upon which the current study was built. Construction of the instrument used Wehmeyer and colleagues' (2000) survey instrument and Agran et al.'s results. The survey covered the main topics of both previous surveys and expanded on them. Using content expert reviews, some questions were revised to suit current trends and needs. The survey was distributed and administered electronically in May 2022 and concluded in June 2022. The study sought to illuminate (1) the level of familiarity of TVIs with self-determination by measuring their level of understanding, exploring how they define self-determination, and examining the channels they learn about self-determination, (2) how much importance TVIs place on self-determination, and (3) how TVIs support its development in their students. The survey also collected some demographic data for the responding teachers and the students they serve to support well-developed answers to the research questions proposed. Results demonstrated that a majority (79.44%) of TVIs hold a master's degree and teach a heterogenous population across a variety of geographical and instructional settings. Most (69.72%) stated that they had heard of the importance of self-determination at the time of the survey. However, they were less likely (53.05%) to have been taught the specifics of self-determination instruction. It appears that, when warranted by age and/or need of their students, TVIs (35.56%) do provide some instruction related to self-determination skills. To obtain richer data than a multiple-choice question can provide, TVIs were asked to define self-determination. The definitions provided by these 360 practicing TVIs showed that most have at least some levels of the familiarity and understanding of this essential ECC area. However, most TVIs do not claim to be intentionally embedding instruction of the seven component skill areas that support students' self-determination development that were identified by Wehmeyer in 1997. The findings of this survey underscored that, despite TVIs holding advanced degrees and being familiar with self-determination, many are still developing their proficiency in teaching self-determination. Therefore, I propose that university teacher preparation programs analyze their course offerings to raise self-determination awareness among pre-service teachers. Additionally, TVIs (73.05%) indicated that they gather information and learn from attending conferences, webinars, or workshops. Hence, in order to encourage current TVIs' to incorporate self-determination instruction in their practice, creation of appropriate and useful professional development opportunities would be valuable. Collaboration with organizational leaders in the field, such as those associated with CEC or the American Printing House for the Blind, could provide opportunities to bridge the relevant practitioner knowledge gaps identified in this study.
