The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of promoting special education teacher candidates' reflective ability through a comprehensive field experience that combined (a) reflecting-on-action through video analysis with (b) reflecting-in-action through bug-in-ear coaching with real-time feedback. First, we implemented two…

To curb the negative impact that rural Hawaii's qualified special education teacher (SET) shortage has on students with disabilities, a professional development (PD) course was developed to examine the effect the program had on mentoring beginning SETs. Course programming was aligned to SET preparation coursework, targeted at the ongoing PD needs…

Many studies have investigated the inadequacy of training and support for special education paraeducators, but few have examined prehire activities or recommended a comprehensive plan to train and hire paraeducators. This quantitative action research study of 267 special education paraeducators and special education teachers was conducted in a…

Despite extensive research on teacher self-efficacy, little has focused on certified itinerant teachers who work with students ages infancy through 22 identified as deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). During a U.S. shutdown and global pandemic, the researcher explored factors that influence itinerant teachers' sense of teacher self-efficacy and…

Mothers play a crucial role in their children's education especially for children with special education needs (SEN). Specifically, collaborative practices between Saudi mothers with daughters with an intellectual disability (ID), and special education professionals are essential to achieve positive outcomes. The purpose of this study was to…

Multilingual learners labeled as disabled have less access to bilingual educational programming compared to their nondisabled peers. As well, special education teachers have not been prepared to support multilingual learners. Therefore, the present study examined whether coaching may be an effective form of professional development for special…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the preparation of special education teachers to manage conflict in IEP meetings. For the purposes of this study, conflict is defined where an advocate and/or lawyer were present at an IEP meeting. Twenty special educators were interviewed who have been in conflict-laden IEP…

The success of the inclusion of students with disabilities substantially depends on the collaboration of various social agents, including non-disabled peers, who play a substantial role in the lives of students with disabilities. Peers, as social agent, are responsible for the creation of a favourable social environment, in which one of the key…

In recent years there has been intense interest in teachers' occupational stress in the educational community. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and self-efficacy among primary school teachers working in mainstream and special education schools. The sample consisted of 501 teachers (412…

This study is on data-gathering software for special teachers in local education agencies Grades K-14. Increasing pressure for the use of accountability to follow the effectiveness of meeting educational standards has caused schools to reassess methods of using data and the core technologies surrounding its collection. The amount of data…

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) requires that the teacher understands and applies not only knowledge about content, and not only knowledge about teaching strategies, but an intersection of the two. This article provides professional learning considerations for supporting teachers' PCK and skills with gifted and high-potential students. These…

The significant shortages of special educators across the United States, particularly in our rural communities, can negatively affect the delivery of high-quality services that enable young children and families to flourish (National Coalition on Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services, 2019). We present our Project STRIDE…

A tremendous amount of evidence supports the importance of building relationships between educators and students (Kincaide et al., 2020). Because of this, there is an emerging focus in both research and practice on how student-teacher relationships are assessed, the impact of these relationships on student outcomes, and methods for building and…

Research on teacher retention and attrition suggests that it may be particularly difficult to fill special education positions in rural, economically disadvantaged, high-minority, and urban U.S. schools. Although teacher retention and attrition have received considerable attention in the literature, less is known about the reasons special…

We used five waves of nationally representative data over 16 years from the Schools and Staffing Survey, National Teacher Principal Survey, and Teacher Follow-up Survey to descriptively examine how the roles, responsibilities, preparation, and supports for special educators have changed over time. We then used regression to investigate how these…