The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the experiences of general education elementary school inclusion co-teachers in schools that are successful with their special education population as defined by Adequate Yearly Progress and most recently, the College and Career Ready Performance Index. The participants were employed in a…

The classroom configuration of U.S. public schools is changing. Inclusion settings are becoming increasingly common because special needs students are provided with the opportunity for a complete educational experience. The inclusion model is about not only the location in which instruction is being delivered but also the introduction of new…

In the current education context (IDEIA, 2004; NCLB, 2003), many K-12 schools are using collaborative models such as co-teaching to address the needs of all learners, but preservice teachers are often inadequately prepared for collaborative teaching in inclusive classrooms. This study explored 46 elementary and special education pre-service…

The purpose of this study was to explore the collaboration of co-teachers in a secondary inclusive setting through an autoethnographic approach. "In terms of labels, autoethnography is derived from 'ethnography,' a research method primarily concerned with studying the other" (Starr, 2010, p. 3). Additionally, this research approach embraces…

This study reflects on a research and development project between two dance practitioners, one of them a wheelchair user, working together to develop pedagogical design within teacher education at a university in Norway. The aim of the authors is to encourage student teachers toward becoming inclusive and brave teachers who define diversity among…

This mixed-method descriptive pilot investigation addressed co-teaching as an inclusive school practice for special education teacher candidates at Sebastian Kolowa Memorial University (SEKOMU) in Tanzania. The investigation results, though preliminary, indicate that course content and instruction in co-teaching had a positive impact on the…

The decision handed down by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education was not only a legal victory for African Americans in the United States, but all groups who were forced into exclusionary environments. In the shadows of Brown, advocates began seeking reforms that would allow students with disabilities to receive their education…

This qualitative study investigated how teachers' and administrators' attitudes and perceptions about collaborative teaching affect the practice of inclusion. The study is based on the theory that attitudes and perceptions of those involved in the practice of education are critical to its success. The research questions were open-ended questions…

The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions of co-teachers. Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely as their peers without disabilities to leave school early (Kortering & Braziel, 2002; Wilson & Michaels, 2006). Students in two inclusive classrooms in an urban middle school participated in interviews about…

Federal legislations require that students with disabilities be included as full participants in the general education curriculum. Many of these students enter the high school collaborative instruction classroom with different levels of competence, yet are held to the same standards and expectations as nondisabled peers. Using purposeful sampling…

This study examined achievement gains in reading and math for Hispanic middle school students with specific learning disabilities in inclusive versus segregated settings in a large urban school district. The authors report learning gains for students with and without disabilities in inclusive versus segregated settings. Results indicate no…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 have directly contributed to an increase in students receiving inclusive specialized instruction within the general education classroom setting. To accommodate these students, many schools have implemented the practice of co-teaching, or…

The concepts of an inclusive classroom, inclusion, co-teaching, and disability have been called poorly defined and in need of fresh conceptual analyses. In Chapter 1, I respond to this call for further analysis and then demonstrate, using current educational headlines, that these concepts of "an inclusive classroom,"…

Within the educational research community, there have been a growing number of published research studies in teacher education that adopt a self-study approach. Researchers suggests that self-study in teacher education has the potential to animate the idea of teaching as reflection, model an inquiry-based approach to pedagogy, and generate rich…

This article relates the story of a first grade teacher and a child who was the only deaf student in the entire school. Because he had no one who could communicate with him--not teachers, not students, no one, this situation tugged at the hearts of a committed team of professionals. A teacher of the deaf, a first grade general education teacher, a…