Marleen C. Pugach

Rethinking the Technology Integration Challenge: Cases from Three Urban Elementary Schools.

Abstract Case studies of three urban elementary schools were conducted to document the integration of technology given identical resources from a local university’s PT3 grant. Data sources for this qualitative study included participant observers’ field notes and journal entries, school personnel interviews, timeline and chronicle of technology-related priorities and events, and children’s and teachers’ technology artifacts. Cases were summarized with respect to prior technology context, agents of growth and development, and changes and future directions. The analysis identified three scaffolds that appear to have a significant influence on—and redefine the challenge of—technology integration: alignment with the curriculum/mission, teacher leadership, and public/private roles for technology recognition.

The Stories We Choose to Tell: Fulfilling the Promise of Qualitative Research for Special Education:

In recent years qualitative research has earned an increasingly legitimate place as a form of systematic inquiry in educational scholarship. Special education researchers who draw on qualitative methods have responded by using this research paradigm chiefly to document stories of individuals with disabilities. However, rarely have these studies been extended to consider the broader sociocultural contexts within which disability exists. A case is made in this article for broadening the view of qualitative research that governs its practice within special education in an effort to challenge both the nature of the stories we choose to tell about disability as well as the frameworks by which these stories are disciplined.

Prereferral Interventions: Progress, Problems, and Challenges:

Special education has supported the implementation and study of a variety of prereferral interventions as a means of reducing the number of inappropriate formal referrals, especially in the field of learning disabilities. Programs of preservice teacher education are beginning to reflect the practice of prereferral activity programmatically by including preparation for teaming and consultation roles. In this article, the assumptions associated with the most prominent categories of prereferral interventions being adopted—consultation and informal problem-solving teams—are examined. A critical analysis of the benefits and limitations of each approach is offered, and alternative conceptions of prereferral practice are then presented.

Curriculum Matters: Raising Expectations for Students with Disabilities

RR MORE THAN 2 DECADES, CURRICULUM AND ~ OR its accompanying focus on standards and accountability for learning have dominated serious conversations about improving education. Today, discussions about how to provide equity in achieving the curriculum, how to achieve compatibility between equity and high standards, and what constitutes a meaningful curriculum are commonplace and serve to focus attention on the performance and progress of all children.

A Historical Perspective on the Role of Collaboration in Teacher Education Reform Making Good on the Promise of Teaching All Students

This article provides an analysis of how collaborative teacher education has developed in terms of practice, discourse, and the relationship between general and special education across three historical stages. It explores how collaborative teacher education between general and special education has been positioned over time in relationship to larger national reform efforts in teacher education. Approaching the history of collaborative teacher education developmentally from these three perspectives sheds light on how today’s emphasis on collaboration and multiple certifications intersects with what it means to teach in a diverse society and what it means to prepare teachers to meet the needs of every student.

Classroom Teachers' Views Of Intervention Strategies For Learning And Behavior Problems: Which Are Reasonable And How Frequently Are They Used?

This study investigated intervention strategies that general educators use and believe are reasonable for implementation when dealing with children with mild learning and behavior problems. Two sources of data were used. Teachers from Wisconsin and Illinois (n = 232) rated how often they used 57 intervention strategies and how reasonable these strategies were for implementation in the classroom as a means of accommodating the needs of students with mild learning and behavior problems. Teacher ratings of use and reasonability were factor-analyzed, and five factors were generated for each. The two factor structures were interrelated and had similar factors. Factors generated for use were principal involvement, teacher intervention, special education, teacher consultation, and parent involvement. Factors generated for reasonability were teacher intervention, principal/teacher consultation, student alternatives, special education, and data collection. Eighty-seven of these teachers then were interviewed to determine specific issues they consider when determining whether an intervention strategy can be implemented reasonably in their classrooms. These data provide a clear profile of interventions teachers use and find reasonable, as well as an indication of factors that inhibit teachers from selecting intervention strategies to address the mild learning and behavior problems of their students.

Barriers to Effective Special Education Consultation

Special education consultation is widely supported by teacher educators as a necessary component of the role of the special educator, particularly those educators being trained to work with mildly handicapped students. Data indicate, however, that in practice special educators spend very little of their time consulting. This article examines (a) the emergence of the consulting movement, (b) barriers that impede consultation from being integrated into the role of the special educator, and (c) ways to address those barriers.

On the Failure of Imagination in Inclusive Schooling

Based on the first-generation attempts at inclusion described in these case studies, this analysis poses three questions: What are the bottom-line practices we ought to expect in inclusive classrooms and from all the teachers who work in them? What might the relationship look like between the classrooms themselves and the schools and the administrators who lead them? And, how can we best use these case studies to stimulate the development of the next generation of inclusive classrooms?

Reconceptualizing Support Services for Classroom Teachers: Implications for Teacher Education.

For the past decade the training experi ences of teachers for the mildly handi capped have become increasingly specialized. Such specialization has led to a certain amount of curricular and faculty isolation. The authors call for unifying teaching preparation, with the conceptual integration of special educa tion for the mildly handicapped and gen eral teacher education.

Uncharted Territory: Research on the Socialization of Special Education Teachers

E ACH YEAR, thousands of students enter preparation programs in anticipation of becoming special education teachers, and each year as well, thousands more graduate to take positions as special education teachers in our nation’s schools. As they enter the workplace of schools, what kinds of professionals will they become? What will influence their professional self-identities in the transition from student to practicing teacher? Questions of this nature fall into the domain of teacher socializa-