Preparing Preservice Special Education Teachers to Engage in Family Collaboration: A Case Study of One Preservice Teacher Preparation Program

Abstract

This descriptive case study aimed to explore how one undergraduate preservice special education teacher preparation program prepares its teacher candidates to engage in family collaboration effectively, an important skill set for effectively meeting the needs of students with exceptionalities. Critics of university-based teacher education programs contend that these programs do little to prepare beginning teachers for the realities of the school contexts in which they will teach. Thus, it is important to understand how university-based teacher preparation programs prepare their teacher candidates to engage in high-leverage teaching practices related to family collaboration. Data sources included interviews with preservice teacher candidates at different points in their programs, university classroom observations, and program-related documents (e.g., syllabi, course modules/activities, key program assessments, and take-home assignment descriptions, etc.). Findings suggest that this special preservice teacher preparation integrates family collaboration-related objectives, course topics, and assignments across the five-semester program of study, and teacher candidates in their second and fifth semesters of the program have differing perspectives about the extent to which the program has prepared them to effectively engage in family collaboration.