The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how special education teachers in secondary schools describe institutional challenges and how they personalize their teaching when educating students with special needs in a self-contained classroom in the southwest United States. The theoretical framework is the conceptual framework of a classroom as a complex adaptive system (CAS). Two research questions guided the semi-structured interviews and archival data: how did special education teachers in secondary schools describe institutional challenges when educating students with special needs in a self-contained classroom? How did special education teachers in secondary schools describe how they personalize their teaching when educating students with special needs in a self-contained classroom? Ten self-contained secondary educators participated in the semi-structured interviews. The Special Education Committee Survey provided three hundred responses. Clarke and Braun's six steps of thematic analysis supported data analysis. Six themes emerged from the analysis of the data. For example, one theme was that the districts need to provide a system that will distribute money to equip the SPED programs with the knowledge of the professional SPED Teachers, while another theme was the inability to provide stable support for the uncertain day-to-day challenges in their jobs. The researcher recommends further research be done to identify how special education teachers describe institutional challenges and personalize their teaching. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]