Introduction
In order to complete this activity, I interviewed MW, our lead special education teacher and GC, the head of our English department, to understand the perspective each has on the process of supporting students with disabilities. I was struck by the differences I saw in key areas as well as the overall similarities between them.
Similarities and Differences
Both MW and GC were proud of the services we offer our disabled students and both feel that room for improvement exists. Interestingly, their perspectives on where that improvement should occur are different and that difference is telling.
MW, the lead special education teacher, feels that our general teachers are sensitive to the needs of students with disabilities, but only to a point and, in her words, often look to the special education teachers to “fix their students” so they can be successful in class. She feels that teachers should be more sensitive to the fact that managing learning disabilities is a process, not a quick-fix situation, and that long-term understanding and flexibility are required.
GC, on the other hand, told me that he is often frustrated by the “continuous stream of accommodations teachers are asked to make for students with disabilities. “For example,” he told me, “suppose I am asked to help little Johnny break his research paper up into smaller steps so that he can manage it better because he has difficulty with managing large projects. I get that. But, sooner or later, Johnny is going to have to know how to manage a large research paper, right?”
This contrast is telling since it points to a fundamental lack of understanding on both sides of the perceptive of the other.
Role of the Principal
When I pointed this contrast out to both of them and asked them how they thought it should be resolved, they both suggested –correctly, I believe– that teamwork and compromise is the best solution and this, I think, is the role of a principal insofar as he or she is responsible for promoting collaboration among general and special education teachers.
Most communication between these two camps is done in writing, given the busy schedules they both keep. IEP Meetings and Staffings are few and far between and, most of the time, a teacher simply receives a list of recommendations for a particular student which, after time, begins to look very similar to all of the other “individual” recommendations made by special education teachers. This communication is what must change in order for the situation to improve.
A students progress in a mainstream classroom must be monitored by both staff members and communication should flow in both directions. An irony often missed by both sides is that the strategies that will make GC (for example) a better teacher to his students with disabilities will often help all of his other students as well. This sort of collaboration is what a principal must foster in order to remedy the situation and help both specialists to help their students achieve success.