One of the most prominent news stories as this new school year is that many cities and states are facing a lack of teachers with special educators seemingly being especially hard to find (Diament 2022). It seems to be the dominant story in education as we head into this fall as many reporting the shortage, including sites like Politico, seem to have a doom and gloom outlook on the situation (Ward 2022). It can be an anxiety inducing headline, with people beginning to look down the road to try to predict consequences of a shortage of special education teachers in particular (Keenehan 2022). However there does seem to be some nuance to whether a shortage actually exists (Bruno 2022). Bruno points out that what is actually considered a teacher shortage varies from person to person. Is it being unable to find a teacher for a specific classroom? Is it having no candidates for a position? Is it having only a few candidates to select from for a particular position? These are questions that it seems are going inadequately answered at this point.
While there are still questions regarding the specifics of reported teacher shortage, I believe this is a good time to look into what some researchers have found regarding the working conditions that special educators and what special educators have reported they need to be successful.
I should note that this is an area where I am passionate. As a special educator, I have experienced directly many of the things mentioned in these studies first hand and they can cause a great deal of stress. I am still a doctorate student planning his dissertation at the time of writing this post and these articles have been a jumping off point for my own research project. While my current dissertation plan is to study the collaboration between special educators and general educators in developing curriculum and instruction, the purpose behind my research has been driven by a desire to improve the working conditions of special educators. With that said, let’s get into the research.
- Adequate Instructional and Planning Time: Bettini et. al in a literature review (2016) found that there were several studies that indicated that adequate instruction and planning times could potentially impact the quality of instruction that special educators could provide and Mathews et. al in 2021 found in part that yes, this is the case. The researchers found that special education teachers who did not have to attend to other responsibilities while teaching delivered the strongest instruction of their participants. Conversely, teachers who were constantly pulled away from their instruction during class time (i.e., such as having to attend to student behaviors, direct paraprofessionals, or to perform duties unrelated to providing instruction) struggled to deliver high quality instruction to their students. Mathews et. al note the many different responsibilities that a special education teacher may have over the course of the school day which could divert their attention from delivering instruction, therefore I believe that schools should ensure that they have implemented polices which protect the teaching time of special educators and prevent them from being removed from their students for any reason. It was also noted that the planning time available to the teachers was inconsistent with the teachers who experienced the most difficult time delivering instruction receiving the least. In my experience, special education teachers need a great deal of time to adequately prepare for their students. The different responsibilities of a special educator (IEP writing and their subsequent meetings, directing and coaching paraprofessionals, consulting with specialists, etc.) all take time away from their ability to plan for their own instruction. I believe that it is too much and the responsibilities traditionally placed on special educators should be reassessed to ensure that special educators have enough time to meet all their duties.
- Instructional Materials: Mathews et. al also noted that access to appropriate instructional materials is an important component to the quality of instruction that teachers are able to provide. Teachers in the study referred to having little access to the resources that they needed to teach their students and therefore were required to either explore Teachers Pay Teachers (using their own money) or simply creating materials themselves as they needed them. A lack of resources is also associated with special educators feeling overwhelmed by their jobs and delivery of less high quality instruction by a teacher (Cumming et al. 2021). To me, this is a clear equity issue experienced by special educators and their students and I believe that the Cumming article shows pretty clearly that . I strongly believe that all students should have access to all the resources that a teacher believes would benefit their education. There seems to be a breakdown between what a school and/or district believes that a special educator needs and what the teachers themselves believe they need. This is something that I hope to examine further.
- Isolation from Colleagues: O’Brien et al. found that special educators are often isolated from their colleagues and have limited time where they are able to collaborate with other professionals in their building (2019). The researchers found that the most collaboration that teachers are able to engage in is done with the paraprofessionals assigned to this room. While they note the value of having strong paraprofessional support (which I suspect that this amount of collaboration would lead to) it is concerning that special educators may not have adequate access to their colleagues. In my experience, being able to discuss instructional planning with a teacher whose skillset and expertise is very different from your own is a great way to get a new perspective in your practice and serve as a jumping off point to push your students even further academically than you thought possible. There is also a social benefit as being able to collaborate with colleagues could give a teacher emotional support during challenging times (of which there can be many). This article is what really set me off on my path for my dissertation, and I am looking forward to researching effective methods for special educators to meaningfully collaborate. I would suggest that schools take extra care to ensure that special educators feel as though they are a part of the school’s community and are not teaching on an island.
Thank you for reading my thoughts and recommendations. There are many things that these articles address that I was unable to get to in this post, and if you are interested, I would highly recommend reviewing them. It is extremely important that all teachers are put in the best position to succeed in their instruction as if they fail, then it is the students who are truly harmed.
References
Bettini, E. A., Crockett, J. B., Brownell, M. T., & Merrill, K. L. (2016). Relationships Between Working Conditions and Special Educators’ Instruction. The Journal of Special Education, 50(3), 178–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022466916644425
Bruno, P. (2022, August 8). Figuring out when to panic about “teacher shortages”. Education Next. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.educationnext.org/figuring-out-when-to-panic-about-teacher-shortages/
Cumming, M. M., O’Brien, K. M., Brunsting, N. C., & Bettini, E. (2021). Special Educators’ Working Conditions, Self-Efficacy, and Practices Use With Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders. Remedial and Special Education, 42(4), 220–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741932520924121
Diament, M. (2022, August 11). Schools nationwide expect special ED teacher shortages this fall. Disability Scoop. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2022/08/11/schools-nationwide-expect-special-ed-teacher-shortages-this-fall/29976/
Keenehan, K. (2022, August 10). Shortage of special education teachers causing ripple effects for students, advocates say. wbir.com. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.wbir.com/article/news/education/special-education-teacher-shortage-effect-on-kids/51-01263f76-eb35-46c2-ab38-aa572b76367f
Mathews, H. M., Lillis, J. L., Bettini, E., Peyton, D. J., Pua, D., Oblath, R., Jones, N. D., Smith, S. W., & Sutton, R. (2021). Working Conditions and Special Educators’ Reading Instruction for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Exceptional Children, 87(4), 476–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402921999825
O’Brien, K. M., Brunsting, N. C., Bettini, E., Cumming, M. M., Ragunathan, M., & Sutton, R. (2019). Special Educators’ Working Conditions in Self-Contained Settings for Students With Emotional or Behavioral Disorders: A Descriptive Analysis. Exceptional Children, 86(1), 40–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402919868946
Ward, M. (2022, August 16). The teacher shortage problem is bad. really bad. POLITICO. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/08/15/the-teacher-shortage-problem-is-bad-really-bad-00052053
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