Middle and high school general education teachers in the school district in this bounded case study
were facing challenges with meeting the needs of students who have autism in the current inclusion
program. The purpose of this study was to understand teachers' challenges with components of the
inclusion program and serving students with autism in the general education classroom. The
conceptual framework was Villa and Thousand's 5 system-level best practices for successful
inclusive education. A purposeful sampling procedure was used to select 4 general education
teachers who were teaching autistic students in an inclusive setting; this sample included 2 middle
school level and 2 high school level teachers from 2 schools in the small rural district. The data
collected through classroom observations and semi structured interviews were coded based on Villa
and Thousand's best practices of leadership, redefined roles, collaboration, adult support, and
promotion as each related to inclusion of autistic students. Results were used to identify
challenges teachers were facing that prevented the 5 system-level best practices from being
implemented. Key challenges were collaboration between general and special education teachers and
lack of professional development for all teachers on inclusion.
Findings were used to provide recommendations for how to address challenges in middle and high
school inclusion programs and for conducting future studies in different settings. The results of
this study could be used by school leaders and other stakeholders to make informed decisions about
system level implementation of inclusion program components and for enhancing the learning of
students who have autism in the inclusive
setting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:waldenu.edu/oai:scholarworks.waldenu.edu:dissertations-3760 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| Creators | Goodrow, Marcie Anne |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | Walden University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies |
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