As a result of recent federal legislative changes affecting educational policies, co-teaching, which requires general and special educators to work together to provide instruction to students in inclusion classrooms, has been on the rise and is considered by some educators as a method for meeting mandates required by law. While co-teaching is an idea that should work in practice, teachers who implement co-teaching find themselves facing complex issues regarding their roles and responsibilities within the context of program logistics. This qualitative study was designed to help co-teaching partners and others to understand how co-teaching partnerships are formed, develop, and work in classrooms. This understanding may be helpful to others as they seek to overcome barriers and form relationships that facilitate successful co-teaching partnerships.
Elementary co-teachers in a rural school district were interviewed face-to-face, and a document analysis was conducted to examine how co-teachers experience co-teaching partnerships. Six general education co-teachers and six special education co-teachers were randomly selected for interviews, and they were asked to bring any literature that they had received on co-teaching to the interviews.
Results indicate that co-teachers thought compatibility was important when working as co-teachers. They expressed the need for a mutual planning time during the school day, and both general and special education co-teachers were concerned about the amount of uninterrupted time special education teachers could spend in inclusion classrooms. When co-teachers thought they had a compatible partnership, they were willing to make alternative planning arrangements, and they were accepting of the time special education co-teachers could spend in the classroom. / Ed. D. / Co-teaching requires general and special education teachers to work together to provide instruction to students in inclusion classrooms. Co-teaching has been on the rise and is considered by some educators as a method for meeting mandates required by law. While coteaching is an idea that should work in practice, teachers who are practicing co-teaching find themselves facing complex issues regarding their roles and responsibilities in the classroom. This study was designed to help co-teaching partners and others to understand how co-teaching partnerships are formed, develop, and work in classrooms. This understanding may be helpful to others as they seek to overcome barriers and form relationships that facilitate successful coteaching partnerships.
Elementary co-teachers in a rural school district were interviewed face-to-face, and a document analysis of any literature co-teachers had received on co-teaching was conducted to examine how co-teachers experience co-teaching partnerships. Six general education coteachers and six special education co-teachers were randomly selected for interviews, and they were asked to bring any literature that they had received on co-teaching to the interviews.
Results indicate that co-teachers thought compatibility, to be able to get along together, was important when working as co-teachers. They expressed the need for the same planning time during the school day, and both general and special education co-teachers were concerned about the amount of uninterrupted time special education teachers could spend in inclusion classrooms. When co-teachers thought they had a compatible partnership, they were willing to make alternative planning arrangements, and they were accepting of the time special education co-teachers could spend in the classroom.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83390 |
| Date | 30 November 2016 |
| Creators | Yearout, Rebecca Lee |
| Contributors | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Parks, David J., Earthman, Glen I., Carter, Edith H., Gratto, John Robert |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Page generated in 0.0028 seconds