Date of Award

2026-05-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Educational Leadership and Administration

Advisor(s)

Jesus Cisneros

Abstract

Inclusive education increasingly positions co-teaching as a key model for supporting students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Although co-teaching is widely promoted as a way to improve access and participation, its effectiveness is shaped by how special education teachers experience collaboration, role clarity, and administrative support in practice. This qualitative study explored how special education teachers perceived their roles in co-teaching partnerships and the conditions that influenced their ability to collaborate effectively. Guided by a constructivist epistemological framework, this qualitative study explored the experiences of special education teachers working in co-teaching settings. Through semi-structured interviews, participants described how their roles were shaped and negotiated through shared planning, communication, administrative expectations, and broader school structures. The findings showed that effective co-teaching was not based only on individual teacher personality, but also on the organizational conditions that either supported or limited collaboration. By centering the perspectives of special education teachers, this study contributes to the literature on inclusive education by reframing co-teaching challenges as issues of structural accountability rather than individual inadequacy. Implications include the need for protected collaboration time, clearer administrative expectations, and stronger institutional support for equitable instructional partnerships.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

177 p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Marta Bronislawa Santiago

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