Beginning Special Educators: Problems of Practice and the Influence of School Context

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of a study we conducted with our former special education student teachers during their first and second years of teaching. We investigated these beginning special educators' problems of practice and the influence of the school context on teachers' abilities to solve their problems. The results indicated that novice special educators were troubled by issues related to instruction and curriculum, understanding the system, mainstreaming and inclusion, and exhaustion. The results also indicated that these teachers received little support from their general education colleagues or administrators; most of their support came from other special educators. Implications for teacher education are discussed.