Imprisoned in School? Research for Innovative Practices and Policy Change in a Center-Based Classroom

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Special Education Research SIG Poster Session

Abstract

This paper describes innovative school practices and potential policy changes advanced by qualitative research. The ethnographic study focuses on a middle-school special educator who teaches students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) in the center-based classroom of a large, inner-city, upper-Midwestern school. Eight students spend their entire school day in his charge. The study primarily addresses a persistent special education problem, the high rate of attrition among teachers of students with EBD. As the study progressed, innovative approaches for teaching students with EBD emerged. Findings about these classroom practices, and how they contributed to school policy changes, suggest some methods by which this teacher continues to be motivated to teach students who struggle with multiple learning and behavior challenges.

Author

• Teresa Ann Tyler, Saint Paul Public Schools