The purpose of this study was to describe the roles and responsibilities of 17 special education teachers and the challenges they encountered in the areas of planning, instructing, and monitoring of student progress of elementary students in 4 school districts in Western Pennsylvania. This study was conducted by collecting data through focus group discussions, written weekly logs, and personal interviews. Focus group questions regarding the teaching practices of special educators were guided by the review of the literature and the conceptual framework of this study, based in part on Dukes 1987 vision of teaching excellence in the areas of planning, instructing, and monitoring student progress. Findings revealed five challenges and impacts of the challenges they encountered in their daily work, together explaining the role dissonance experienced by many special education teachers in todays schools. Real life examples of how teachers cope with the challenges of their daily work were revealed through the stories they told in this study. The collective knowledge and experiences of these teachers stand as examples for others in their own practices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12072006-085408 |
| Date | 29 January 2007 |
| Creators | Katsafanas, Jodi D. |
| Contributors | Steve Lyon, PhD, George Zimmerman, PhD, Charlene Trovato, PhD, Naomi Zigmond, PhD, Rita Bean, PhD |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12072006-085408/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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