Changing Junior High Resource Teachers' Concerns Towards Inclusion Through Professional Development

Based on special education teachers' lack of strategic professional development, as well as a lack of collaboration with general education teachers, students with disabilities are not making the expected benchmarks for academic achievement.

Knowing there was a need for professional development, the purpose of this action research study using mixed-methods was to first understand the attitudes and concerns towards inclusion of Junior High special education resource teachers.

A secondary purpose of the study was to determine if focused professional development alters Junior High resource teachers' concerns towards inclusion along the Stages of Concern continuum of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) of change.

All of the district's eight Junior High resource special education teachers were invited to participate in a series of professional development opportunities aimed at impacting teachers' abilities to positively foster an inclusive environment on their campuses.

Trainings were based upon the National Standards for Staff Development and influenced by Susan Loucks-Horsley's five formal models of professional development, Rich Allen's five pillars of the TrainSmart model, and the Concerns-Based Adoption Model's seven Stages of Concern.

Training offered over four months centered on inclusion and contained content that reinforced building learning communities, developing strategies for collaboration, providing equity across subgroups of learners while providing for accommodations and modifications to students, applying knowledge about human-learning to co-teaching, and furthering the change process.

Data gathered from methodological tools: pre/post intervention Stages of Concern Questionnaires (SOCQ), focus group and individual interviews, scheduled open-ended questions, and informal pieces of qualitative data revealed that the teachers were often concerned with managing tasks while overcoming barriers to inclusion, as well as the impact that inclusive practices has on them and students.

Results also indicate that there were changes in concerns within primary, secondary, and lowest levels of concerns for participants.

The findings of this study suggest a need for continued professional development and growth of the established community of practice for all teachers and administrators who work within an environment that promotes inclusive practices.