C. Michael Nelson began his special education career as a teacher of adolescents with learning and behavior disorders. He has worked as a child psychologist and as a professor with the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Kentucky. He coordinated the graduate Personnel Preparation Program for Teachers…

Casting special education teacher development as an avatar living in a virtual and changing landscape is a creative way to consider the current state of the field and project possible futures. In this commentary, the authors consider areas that may help strengthen the Avatar, including conceptualizing and identifying the outcomes of teacher…

A tension exists between educational practitioners and researchers, which is often attributed to their dichotomous and oftentimes polarizing professional ideologies or Discourse communities. When determining what works in education, researchers tend to emphasize evidencebased practices (EBPs) supported by research that is rigorous and internally…

Dempsey has provided a commentary on our study (Carter, Stephenson, & Strnadova, 2011) examining the reported rates of use of instructional practices by Australian special educators. Examining this commentary, it is evident that on many issues we are on the same page and agree on many of the fundamental conclusions to be drawn from the study.…

This webinar presented strategies to make the curriculum, instruction, and assessment more accessible for students with disabilities, including significant cognitive disabilities. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had for Dr. Jacqui Kearns following the webinar. The webinar recording and PowerPoint presentation are also available.

This article reports on a case that resulted in a published court decision which illustrates a dilemma at the intersection of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). On first impression, the finding that teachers were operating based on professional principle seems to validate their actions.…

In this article the authors respond to Leah Wasburn-Moses's thoughtful response to their article, "Diversity in Teacher Education and Special Education: The Issues That Divide." In their article, the authors identified what they believe are fundamental differences in how dominant voices in the special education and general teacher education…

In a recent themed issue of "Journal of Teacher Education" ("JTE" 63.4) about issues of disability, diversity, and teacher education, guest editors Marleen Pugach, Linda Blanton, and Lani Florian (2012) invite readers to participate in "honest, difficult, and much needed dialogue across the many diversity constituencies in teacher education" (p.…

In this commentary, the author aims to pull together the threads in the conversation between multicultural and special teacher educators surrounding issues of collaboration, as reflected in this issue. She begins with a brief discussion of collaborative teacher education--a central concept to the dialogue--and then comments on why she thinks such…

In Volume 35, Issue 1 of the "Australasian Journal of Special Education," Carter, Stephenson and Strnadova (2011) replicated a study by Burns and Ysseldyke (2009). In Carter et al.'s study, 194 Australian special educators were asked to rate the extent to which they used eight instructional practices. These practices were applied…

In this commentary, the author provides a framework for examining the articles in this issue. The author does so by providing a focus for reading and linking our brief history to the present and the future. She provides a set of questions about engaging research that seeks to improve the ways in which we question, construct understanding, and…

A conference titled "Preparing Special Education Teachers in Mild/Moderate Disabilities: Programs, Models, and Exemplary Field Experiences" was organized by College of Education at Kuwait University between April 11-13, 2010. This conference was intended to lead to a better teacher preparation program in the region in the area of mild…

The first article in this special issue is about the doctoral programs, the suppliers of new doctoral graduates in special education. It focuses on one component of a larger effort, the Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment (SEFNA) project, which investigated many aspects of the supply of new doctoral graduates as well as the demand for new…

The "Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation" has assembled a series of thought-provoking responses to the National Association of School Psychologists' document "School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice III" (Ysseldyke et al., 2006) or "Blueprint III." Each of the responses addresses the limited effect of preservice…

The author describes her experience as special education teacher at Berkeley High School (BHS), an urban school with over three thousand students, and how she began to question the way the school defines disability. The diversity of any large urban school has its benefits, but the size itself will always be the downfall when the school focuses on…