Contrasting Opportunities to Learn Across Domains in Special Education Teacher Preparation: A Mixed Methods Study

Background/Context: Special educators must be prepared to provide expert instruction and collaborate with a range of professionals to provide students with disabilities with equitable and inclusive educational opportunities. Teacher preparation is an important part of providing special education teacher candidates (SETCs) with robust opportunities to learn (OTL) both the instructional and collaborate aspects of their role. Purpose/Research Questions: In this paper, we describe SETCs’ OTL about their instructional and collaborative roles, addressing the following research questions: (1) To what extent do SETCs report OTL instructional and collaborative practices? (2) Are there significant differences in their experiences of OTL instructional and collaborative practices? (3) In what ways are SETCs’ reported OTL instructional practice distinct from their OTL collaborative practice? Research Design: We used a sequential mixed explanatory design to fulfill our research aim. In Phase 1, we drew on survey data from 154 SETCs across six traditional teacher preparation programs about their OTL instructional and collaborative practice. To explore differences identified in Phase 1 and to better understand SETCs’ OTL in teacher preparation, in Phase 2 we analyzed interview data from 20 SETCs from the survey sample. Coding was informed by Grossman and colleagues’ (2009) pedagogies of practice framework. Conclusions/Recommendations: Quantitative analyses revealed SETCs experienced more extensive OTL about instructional practice than collaborative practice. Qualitative analyses underscored that, whereas OTL instructional practice reflected the three elements of pedagogies of practice (i.e., representations, decompositions, and approximations of practice), OTL collaborative practice lacked structure and specificity. Especially given the struggles novice special educators report regarding collaboration in their first years in the field, findings offer valuable insight into the preparation of special educators for the complex, coordinated, and collaborative work necessary to support inclusive education and improved outcomes for students with disabilities.