Teacher Leadership: Supporting Special Educators' Career Development

Introduction

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is a foundational principle in special education that mandates school professionals to assign students with disabilities to classrooms with their peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate (McKenna et al., 2019). The intent of the LRE provision is to promote the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom rather than make special education a setting unto itself (Giangreco, 2020). Educators, therefore, are expected to provide instructional accommodations and interventions to support students with disabilities to remain in the setting with the most access to the peers without disabilities. Clearly, the legislative mandates that promote inclusion work. For instance, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that about 65% of students with disabilities spend 80% or more of their school day in the general education classroom while another portion spend between 40% and 79% (U.S. Department of Education, 2021). Despite increases in the inclusion of students with disabilities within general education classrooms, there remains evidence that many educators struggle with making appropriate instructional accommodations to adequately support students with disabilities (Scanlon et al., 2021). We posit that special education teacher leadership represents an essential component to realizing the promise of inclusive education by supporting educators select, implement, and evaluate the effects of accommodations on the academic, behavioral, and social performance of students with disabilities. Of course, special education teacher leadership, as with all educators, requires school and district administrators to establish the structures and conditions to promote its development across career stages (Smylie & Eckert, 2018). In the following chapter, we provide an overview of a research line that explored the perspectives of special education teacher leaders on promoting inclusive school practices. Part of the research agenda focused on how special educator perspectives may change across their careers. Before we delve into the evolution of special education teacher positions on leadership, it is important to consider the unique context in which special educators work within inclusive schools and how these contexts may inform their perspectives.

The role of a special education teacher is distinct from their general education counterparts (Mason-Williams et al., 2020). Whereas general educators typically focus on a single grade-level or content area, most special educators must work across multiple students, contexts, colleagues, and subject areas, each presenting varying demands for the special educator to navigate (Bettini et al., 2021). For instance, special educators working in inclusive schools typically maintain a student caseload of approximately 25 students (Wilmshurst & Brue, 2018). For each of these students, the special educator must work with each general educator that student receives instruction from to schedule times for supplemental instruction that focuses on the student’s unique learning needs and responds to the classroom curriculum. Unfortunately, Bettini et al. (2019) found that many general educators are reluctant to allow their students to attend supplemental instruction during class time. Such trepidation of many general educators surrounding special education reflects a general underappreciation of the role that special educators play in supporting students with special needs (Scruggs et al., 2007).