Date of Award
1-1-1995
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education, Health & Behavior Studies
Abstract
Schools are more and more being expected to educate all students, regardless of degree or type of exceptionality, in a setting that is as close as possible to the regular classroom. The attitude of regular class teachers toward this process will have a significant effect on its success or failure. The attitudes of such teachers have been studied extensively. However, most of these studies have used a quantitative questionnaire approach to gather data.This study uses a qualitative interview technique to investigate the attitudes of three Canadian elementary school regular class teachers toward their role as teachers of students with exceptional educational needs.The three themes which emerged from the study are: (1) The teachers tend to give pre-eminence to the needs of the children ahead of all other considerations in the classroom. In considering the overall needs of the children, these teachers place a higher priority on the social and emotional needs of the children than on academic demands of the program. Therefore, they do not see the demands placed on them by special needs children as being unduly onerous since they are not, in many respects, different from the needs of other children. However, they do feel that there is a point when regular class placement is no longer appropriate. (2) The teachers feel that their role as teachers of children with special educational needs is not markedly different from their role as a teacher of a regular class. They feel that all teachers should be willing to accommodate all exceptional children in their classrooms and profess a reluctance to refer such children for special services until they have exhausted their own personal resources as teachers. They demonstrate some misunderstanding of the goals of special education and sometimes feel inadequately trained to deal with exceptional children. (3) They see an important role for administrators in supporting teachers. They value administrators who provide leadership and direction to the school program.Recommendations for teacher and administrative practice as well as areas of further research into regular class teacher understanding of special education are included.
Recommended Citation
McQuarrie, Neil John, "A qualitative study of the attitudes of three regular class teachers toward their roles as special education teachers." (1995). Theses and Dissertations. 8776.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/8776