Teaching together: A study of Irish Special Education Teachers’ views and experiences of collaboration and its potential for professional development.

Abstract

The study employed Little’s (1990) model of teacher collaboration to investigate the forms of collaboration that Irish primary school SETs and their teaching colleagues were involved in and their effect on the way the SETs professional knowledge was built and sustained. The contextual factors that affected collaboration between the SETs and their teaching colleagues were examined. The interaction between the emotional and relational dimension of collaboration and teachers’ professional working relationships and how it affected collaboration between SETs and their teaching colleagues was also explored. The support needed by the special education teachers in order to build their professional knowledge through collaboration and thereby advance SEN practice in their schools was investigated.

Date of Award	17 Feb 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Rita Chawla-Duggan (Supervisor), Chris James (Supervisor) & David Skidmore (Supervisor)