Book Description

This study explored administrators' perceptions of and perceived role in the inclusive instructional setting known as co-teaching. In order to understand the participants' perceptions of co-teaching, the interviews explored their perceptions of their overarching roles in reference to the following: the school change that has occurred through federal laws; how school culture was created in their schools; how they are an instructional leader; and how they manage their school. From these overarching roles of an administrator, the participants were then asked to explore how co-teaching fits into those roles. From those conversations many consistent and inconsistent themes were revealed about the roles of an administrator in today's age of accountability through federal laws and regulations. The participants explained the increase in accountability, requirements for quality staff, the benefits and challenges of co-teaching, and the need for administrators as instructional leaders. They reflected on the decreases in provisions, the division between special and general education, and the limited local control of education. They elaborated on the role conflict and role strain they felt as an administrator. The inconsistent themes shed light on the lack of training about co-teaching for administrators and teachers and differences in expectations of co-teachers between the cases, so the evaluations of co-teachers are not consistent across Smith District. The administrators desired for a tiered evaluation tool for educators and more control over teacher salaries. The final inconsistency was the type of quality of teachers required primary verse secondary schools.