The purpose of this qualitative phenomenology study was to explore the preparedness of K-5 general education teachers through their lived experiences of teaching and working alongside special education teachers in the inclusive classroom. Data were gathered from thirteen teachers across Louisiana who participated in a semi-structured interview…

This qualitative case study explored the methods of how one Mid-Atlantic suburban school district implemented the inclusive practice of co-teaching at the secondary level to examine its effectiveness. Two high schools were evaluated through interviews with co-teachers who implemented this inclusive practice and administrators who supervised and…

The wide range of learning needs in elementary and secondary general education classrooms presents both a challenge and an opportunity for general and special education teachers. It is critical for teacher self-efficacy and student success that teachers believe they are equipped with the knowledge and instructional strategies to plan and implement…

Special educators of students with reading disabilities in upper elementary are tasked with remediating large deficits in reading while ensuring attainment of grade-level curriculum. Using a qualitative approach, this study investigated the reading instruction of six teachers in three schools in one district. Through interviews, an investigation…

The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act prompted schools to explore better methods of educating all students. Collaborative teaching was presented as a solution where a general education teacher and a special education teacher work together with a group of diverse learners. The problem was the perceptions…

When school districts do not have established policies to guide training, practice and professional development for all co-teaching staff, inconsistencies and inequities may arise for the student populations most directly impacted by the lack of those policies, including both general and special education students. In order to best serve the…

The purpose of the descriptive study was to explore the perceptions of special education co-teachers regarding their core content knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived influence to deliver instruction, and the environmental factors that may have impacted their self-efficacy. Grounded in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which…

When special education was first introduced into the general education environment, students were served in separate classrooms. Throughout the years, special education services have evolved and students with mild to moderate disabilities are now educated alongside their non-disabled peers. The foundation of the social interdependence theory is…

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to describe and understand the experiences of co-teaching all-online through the perspectives of general education and special education co-teachers at the middle school level during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study followed Bandura's social cognitive theory with emphasis on self-efficacy…

Numerous amounts of research have been invested into secondary co-teaching. However, results show that secondary co-teaching is not effectively occurring despite volumes of research information. Increased assessments, scheduling difficulties, and a vast curriculum are factors making co-teaching difficult. Another phenomenon found in secondary…

The education of students with disabilities has been subject to consistent growth and reform within the United States. Federal acts and initiatives continue to pave the way towards increasingly inclusive educational programs. Mainstreaming, the process of providing students in special education access to the same resources as their similar-grade…

In this qualitative ethnographic and autoethnographic study, I examined a co-teaching partnership between a general education teacher and special education teacher in an international school. The school inclusion policy, which resulted from a shift in student demographics by admission of students with significant learning needs, supported the…

Although the co-taught classroom is the fastest-growing inclusion model in U.S. public schools, an increasingly-diverse student population coupled with the continued overrepresentation of students of color in special education threatens to undermine its potential as an inclusive space that ensures success for all students. This multiphase,…

Co-teaching is the practice of general educators and special educators sharing instruction in a general education setting to deliberately meet the needs of students with and without disabilities. Co-teacher research tends to focus on the processes of co-teaching, and little is known about how teachers go about creating a system of interconnected…

This research study was designed to examine the impact of the incorporation of vocabulary instruction and various teacher strategies by a middle school science teachers team on student science achievement. The researcher focused on the teacher preparation of vocabulary word walls and the inclusion of specific words within individual units of study…