When pathways cross : special education teacher collaboration under Pathways to programming and graduation

• Main Author: Maich, Kimberly
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2002
• Subjects: Canada; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/1371/; https://research.library.mun.ca/1371/1/Maich_Kimberly.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/1371/3/Maich_Kimberly.pdf

This qualitative research falls into the special education context of inclusion and a new provincial policy model for special education entitled Pathways to Programming and Graduation. It examined the reported day-to-day collaboration between seven special education teachers, the participants, and classroom teachers, in one school district of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Each participant completed an interview and a reflective journal. This study found that participants usually pulled students out of the classroom for special education services, and typically collaborated by talking together, rather than by more direct means, such as teaching together. Three major themes emphasized by the special education teachers emerged in this research. First, the participants often felt isolated, primarily from the typical classroom environment, but also from a lack of professional collegiality. Second, the participants experienced both constraints on their time to collaborate, as well as elaborating on how they spend their collaboration time. Third, they noted issues of power, related to role boundaries with the classroom teachers, directives from supervisory bodies, and special education teacher knowledge. The special education teachers tended to view ideal collaboration as including planned collaboration time during the instructional day, professional inservicing related to collaboration, and training that focuses on interpersonal skills.