Education reform legislation has led to an upwelling of mandatory teacher evaluation for all elementary, middle school, and high school educators, including those who teach special education. While this reform effort aimed to improve overall teacher effectiveness and student learning outcomes, the teacher evaluation for special education is a…

The daily functioning of children who suffer from chronic conditions may be limited by the disease and by hospitalization. Hospital schools have an important role in counterbalancing those negative effects. The aim of the study was to define hospital schools' teachers' needs. The data from qualitative research conducted on 21 Polish hospital…

This article describes a process for the incidental teaching of conversation skills to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive settings. The incidental teaching of conversation skills is an effective naturalistic intervention for assisting students with ASD to improve their social communication skills. Special educators and other…

In the context of the North Rhine-Westphalian school reform towards an inclusive education system, this article problematises the practice of categorisation. Our research aims to investigate the assessment of special educational needs (SEN) and thereby enrich the discussion of the relation between inclusion and diagnostics. For this study, we…

The time is now for integrating discussions of inclusive practice with professional development and school leadership, moving away from the normative view of inclusion as situated within special education and teacher preparation programmes. This study describes a triad professional development model that included an integrated professional…

Qualitative research methods were used to conduct case studies in three public schools in Finland to explore the changing role of the special education profession in Finland after the legislative reform in 2011 regarding educational support. With the implementation of the three tiered-support system, the special educator has become a profession…

It is essential that middle school content-area and special education co-teachers adopt evidence-based literacy practices that they can integrate into their content-area instruction to address the needs of all of the students in their classes. This article provides co-teachers with four planning tips to improve implementation of the practices they…

Across the globe, a critical skill for 21st century special educators is the ability to work effectively with students with special needs from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. International exposure to other cultures through academic immersion experiences fosters those skills by helping teachers cultivate a global perspective. This…

Refugee families who have children with disabilities encounter numerous systemic barriers that impact their opportunities to partner with schools and special educators. This study explored early childhood special education and elementary special education teachers use of culturally responsive family-professional partnership practices with refugee…

Special Education teachers frequently assume formal or informal leadership roles and responsibilities across disciplines (Council for Exceptional Children, 2015a, 2015b). However, despite the increasing attention paid to teacher leadership on an international scale (Wenner & Campbell, 2016), little research exists on the experiences and needs…

Regarding the growing frequency of crisis situations in society, an improvement of special educators' skills in providing psychosocial first aid (PFA) to people with disability in crisis situations needs to be taken into account. The goal of the study was to ascertain the special educator`s role when providing PFA in selected crisis situations, as…

Students with emotional/behavioral disorders are increasingly included in general education settings, requiring their special educators to coordinate with other educators. Yet, research provides limited insights into their interactions with other educators. Thus, we qualitatively examined how special educators experienced and navigated…

Retention of special education teachers is a widespread and chronic issue in the United States. In response to retention issues and other demands, alternative approaches to teacher preparation have developed and expanded. This study, which utilized semi-structured qualitative interviews, explored beginning special education teachers' intentions to…

While there is hesitancy to talk about spirituality in public education, many educators are recognizing the need for an inclusive spirituality as a resource for teachers and students. This research-based article highlights how teachers of students with emotional disturbance experience the spiritual in the school setting and how they foster…

Many special education teacher preparation programs emphasize equity and social justice when preparing future educators who are well equipped to address racial disparities in education. Black special education teacher educators have an impactful role to play in the visioning of racially equitable teacher preparation programs, despite often being…