Michael Wehmeyer


Michael Lee Wehmeyer is the Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor in Special Education and Chairperson of the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on self-determination and self-determined learning, the application of positive psychology and strengths-based approaches to disability, and the education of students with intellectual or developmental disabilities. He is Director and Senior Scientist at Kansas University's Beach Center on Disability. He formerly directed the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities.

Education

Wehmeyer earned his BS and MA in Special Education in 1980 and 1982 from the University of Tulsa. In 2013, he was an alumni inductee of Phi Beta Kappa Arts and Sciences Honor Society-Beta of Oklahoma chapter at the University of Tulsa. He was a Rotary International Fellow at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England in 1987 and 1988, receiving the M.Sc. in Experimental Psychology from the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Centre for Research on Perception and Cognition at Sussex in 1988. He received his PhD in 1989 from the University of Texas at Dallas, in the subject of human development and communication sciences. In 2014, he received The University of Texas at Dallas Distinguished Alumni Award on behalf of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Research and teaching

Professor Wehmeyer's research has focused on the application of the self-determination construct to the disability context. Self-determination is a construct that has its origins in 17th and 18th Century philosophical doctrines pertaining to free will and determinism. In the early 20th Century, the discipline of psychology applied its experimental approach to issues pertaining to self-determination, examining the degree to which a person's actions or behaviors are ‘caused’ by internal factors or forces or forces or factors external to the person. Through much of the latter half of the 20th Century the primary use of the self-determination construct was in its application in the field of motivational psychology, particularly in the context of Self-Determination Theory. In 1992, Wehmeyer proposed a definition of the construct and a general framework drawing from research and knowledge in education and psychology, referred to as the functional model of self-determination, which served as a catalyst in the development of autonomy-supportive interventions to promote student self-determination. Most recently, Wehmeyer and colleagues have introduced Causal Agency Theory, which extends work to create autonomy-motivating interventions from the functional theory to align with Self-Determination Theory and Action-Control Belief Theory to describe a developmental process by which people engage in causal action and become more self-determined.
Wehmeyer has co-authored or co-edited more than 45 books in the fields of special education and psychology, and has written more than 425 book chapters and journal articles. He is a co-author of the Supports Intensity Scales for Adults and Children of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and of the 11th Edition of the AAIDD Intellectual Disability Terminology, Classification, and Systems of Supports Manual. He also trains teachers who work with students with multiple, severe disabilities.
He is a Fellow and former Vice-President of the Americas of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities,, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 33 on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorder, and is a fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, of which he is also a past president. He is a past co-editor of the AAIDD e-journal, Inclusion. From 2004 to 2005, Wehmeyer was president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Career Development and Transition, and is currently president for the CEC Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities. From 2005 to 2010, he was the editor-in-chief of the journal Remedial and Special Education.

Awards

Dr. Wehmeyer has received several awards for his research. In 2013, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award from The Arc of the United States, presented to a career academic researcher whose work has significantly advanced the field of research in intellectual and developmental disabilities. In 2015, Dr. Wehmeyer received the American Psychological Association Distinguished Contributions to the Advancement of Disability Issues in Psychology Award, the 2015 AAIDD Research Award for contributions that have contributed significantly to the body of scientific knowledge in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the Council for Exceptional Children, Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities Burton Blatt Humanitarian Award, presented to a person who has made significant contributions to the field of intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, and/or autism. In the same year, Dr. Wehmeyer received the Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards, Balfour S. Jefferey Award, given in recognition of research achievement in the humanities and social sciences to an individual who may be described as having had a major and substantial impact and who has been of national and/or international interest. Dr. Wehmeyer was recognized with the 2016 Special Education Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children, given to an individual or research team whose research has made significant contributions to the education of children and youth with exceptionalities.

Publications

Selected Books