[abstract] "The purpose of this qualitative case study is to describe preservice special education teacher’ beliefs and perceptions about collaboration as a professional practice. It has been established through national teacher and accreditation standards, through federal policy, and through emphasis from the field of teaching special education that collaboration skills are an important part of teacher training. The research questions guiding this study are: (a) What are preservice special education teachers? beliefs and perceptions about collaboration as a professional practice, (b) What challenges do preservice special education teachers report as obstructing collaboration in their school environments, and (c) After completing coursework in collaboration, how prepared to collaborate do these teachers feel? Due to the descriptive nature of the research questions asked, a qualitative case study design was used for this study. Purposeful sampling yielded twelve participants who were currently taking a course titled, Collaboration among Professionals and Families. Inductive analysis was used to analyze documents, interviews, and online communication. This analysis resulted in six overarching themes which contained 27 code categories. Results showed that participants believed that collaboration as a professional practice led to positive outcomes for students. Despite this belief, collaboration was described as fraught with challenges, in particular the inability to share power between special education teachers and general education teachers. The majority of the participants reported feeling equipped to collaborate as they prepared to enter the teaching field. Implications for teacher education programs and future research are presented."
Source
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, Athens