Providing transition planning and services to students with emotional disturbance (ED) can enhance their success in postsecondary education, employment, and independent living. This qualitative study explores how special educators in Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), perceive the necessity of promoting transition…

Rural school districts face a unique set of challenges. This dissertation focuses on two rural counties in three school districts in southeastern Ohio and examines the difficulties special education teachers and administrators in rural communities often face. Two special education teachers, a general education teacher, two principals, a special…

A lack of teacher preparation for working with racially, culturally, ethnically, economically, and/or linguistically diverse (RCEELD) students is viewed as potentially playing a role in the issue of disproportionality in special education (Griner & Stewart, 2013). The conducted case study aimed to fill an existing gap through providing…

This qualitative descriptive study explored how K-12 special educators describe how their use of cultural competence--awareness, knowledge, attitude/beliefs, and skills-- influences how they assess and address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in the US. The critical multicultural education competency model is the…

In the increasingly common inclusive classroom setting, paraprofessionals have been called to provide Specialized Academic Instruction for Special Education students in the secondary (middle and high school) General Education classroom. Current prior research on paraprofessionals often focused on the training, responsibilities, and role…

Even though effective teaching is required when doctoral students assume positions in higher education, few doctoral programs have courses or formalized experiences designed around pedagogy for undergraduate and graduate students. The lack of pedagogical emphasis is especially concerning for newly minted doctoral students who will be preparing…

Youth with disabilities encounter multiple systemic barriers to post-school success, including racism and discrimination. Critical consciousness is the foundation of culturally responsive and anti-racist work and supports self-determination and vocational outcomes expectations among marginalized youth. While secondary special educators are…

Families of children with disabilities have unique relational needs that may be addressed by practitioners in the field of family science. In this article, we discuss how relational feminism was used as an approach to working with families in a rural Special Education program to facilitate success for very young students with neurodevelopmental…

COVID-19 shocked the education system, disrupting the policies and practices of special education over multiple school years. This essay brings together the institutional logics perspective and racialized organization theory to first examine aspects of special education and then describe how leaders and teachers can improve special education to…

In this study, we aimed to determine the quality indicators in separate special education schools that only educate individuals with special needs from the perspectives of teachers. We collected data from 82 special education teachers included by maximum diversity sampling using a semi-structured interview form. We conducted a content analysis…

Based on the Job Demands-Resources theory, this research investigated the multiple mediating role of special education teachers' social support and work engagement in the relationship between their emotional intelligence and job performance. Data of 710 Chinese mainland teachers in special education schools were analyzed. The results showed that…

The value of early intervention is well demonstrated; however, less is known about the processes that initial evaluation teams use to evaluate and determine young children's eligibility for early intervention (EI) and preschool special education. The present study surveyed multidisciplinary early childhood providers (N = 1445) who conduct initial…

There is presently little consensus on how evaluators evaluate special education teachers. The lack of agreement may be due to the training of evaluators. Special education teachers work under various conditions with a diverse population. In this dissertation, we reviewed the challenges associated with evaluating special education teachers,…

This article presents a comparative interview study (N = 45) with Swedish and German special educators working in inclusive school settings in order to gain an understanding of how inclusive education is operationalized by the provision of special education needs (SEN) support; and how both aspects are conditioned by nation-specific…

Even though paid advocates exist in the field of special education, teacher advocates are important because their work is based on passion and a belief that change is warranted due to their own needs and experiences with students, not merely on the basis that they are being paid to advocate. Education policy in recent years has become more…