Leadership Activity 3 Juliann Greene

Debra Yasutake Marta Yang

Main Article: Billingsley, B.S. (2007). Recognizing and Supporting the Critical Roles of Teachers in Special Education Leadership. Exceptionality, 15 (3), 163-176.

Discusses “the contributions of and roles for teacher leadership in special education.”

References: 1. Gately, S.E., & Gately, F.J. (2001). Understanding

Coteaching Componets. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 33 (4), 40-47.

2. Leadership in Special Edcuation: A Comparative Study by Kiera Chase (kiera.chase @ gmail.com) & Sabrina Yacoub (yacoub. sabrina @ gmail.com).

Main Article and Objectives

1. Teachers will identify three developmental stages in the co-teaching process: the beginning stage, the compromise stage and the collaborative stage. Teachers will discuss their experiences with each of these stages.

2. Teachers will evaluate their perspectives of their teaching as they complete “The co-teaching rating scale” and compare results. Teachers will gain a better understanding of their co-teaching perspectives.

3. Teachers will discuss the roles for teacher leadership in special education.

Objectives:

1. Beginning Stage. At the beginning level of co-teachingteachers communicate superficially, as they develop asense of boundaries and attempt to establish a professionalworking relationship. Moving from a social relationshipto a professional relationship with a colleaguemay be difficult for some pairs of teachers. Some generaleducators may experience feelings of intrusion and invasion.Special educators may feel uncomfortable,detached, and excluded. At the beginning stage teachersmay tread more slowly as they work to determine roleexpectations. Communication may be polite, guarded,and infrequent. Unless there is a clear sense of the developmentalprocess and the goal of collaboration is a mutualone, teachers may get “stuck” at this level. It may bethat much of the dissatisfaction that is noted in the literatureregarding co-teaching is expressed by teachers whocontinue to interact at the beginning level.

The Three Developmental Stages by Gately and Gately

2. Compromising Stage: Teachers who have adequatework relationships display more open and interactivecommunication. An increase in professional communicationis evident. Although students benefit from thisincrease in communication, a sense of “give and take”and compromise pervades at this level. The special educationteacher may be taking a more active role in theclassroom teaching but, in doing so, may have had to“give up” something in return. The compromises at thisstage help the co-teachers to build a level of trust that isnecessary for them to move to a more collaborative

partnership.Open and honest “give and take” is the essenceof the third stage.

The Three Developmental Stages

3 Collaborative Stage:At the collaborative level, teachers openly

communicate and interact. Communication, humor, and a high degree of comfort punctuate the co-teaching, collaborative classroom. This high level of comfort is experienced by teachers, students, and even visitors. The two teachers work together and complement each other. At this stage, it is often difficult for outsiders

to discern which teacher is the special educator and which is the general educator.

The Three Developmental Stages

Leadership in Special Education: A Comparative Study By Kiera Chase (kiera.chase@gmail.com) & Sabrina Yacoub(yacoub.sabrina@gmail.com)

Special Education Teacher Leadership Skills & Perceptions:

In 1975, PL94-142, the role of the Special Educator evolved from the classroom teacher to a multi-faceted

leadership style role, called Education Specialist (Ed. Specialist), which is not dissimilar in skill sets one finds

in

an administrator (Passman, 2008). This researcher wonders what skill sets and competency areas one needs

for success in this role since they are also ten times more likely to transfer to general education than are

general educators likely to transfer to special education (Boe et al., 1997). What, if any, research that exists

only creates more questions in regard to special education teacher leadership (Billingsley, 2007) (Sullivan,

2009) (York, 2005)

The Meaning of Teacher Leadership

Research Questions 1. What perceptions do Education Specialists

have toward their leadership skills? 2. What perceptions do Education Specialists

have toward the importance of different leadership skills?

3. What perceptions do education specialists have towards the importance of different leadership skills to education specialists as a whole?

Leadership in Special Education

Billingsley Bonnie (2008)Leadership may be enhanced through:

Mentoring Co-teaching/collaborating Implementing school reforms Collaborating with universities/research oriented Developing instruction/curriculumExplore one of these aspects: Special Education/Regular Education Collaboration: In pairs complete “The Coteaching Rating Scale”:

compare and discuss results.

Leadership in Special Education: