First-Year Special Educators' Relationships with Their General Education Colleagues (Report‪)‬

Teacher researchers have documented the experiences of beginning teachers, describing novices who have been challenged by the responsibilities of managing and organizing classrooms and meeting the diverse needs of students (Blase, 1985; Burden, 1990; Feiman-Nemser, 1983; Huberman, 1993; Kagan, 1992; Lortie, 1975; Ryan, 1986; Sprinthall, Reiman, & Thies-Sprinthall, 1996; Veenman, 1984). These beginning years have been described as the "discovery and survival" phase of teaching (Huberman, 1993), characterized as either "easy" (marked by a sense of discovery) or "painful" (a focus on survival). According to Huberman (1993), "easy beginnings are consonant with a sense of discovery and enthusiasm (openness, inventiveness, creativity) and good rapport with pupils. Painful beginnings have to do with exhaustion ... and coping" (p. 244). These two distinct types of beginnings eventually stabilize, moving either into a phase of increasing commitment to teaching or increasing disillusionment with the profession. During the past decade, researchers in special education have begun to investigate the unique and complex challenges encountered by novice special educators (e.g., Billingsley & Tomchin, 1992; Billingsley, Carlson, & Klein, 2004; Boyer & Lee, 2001; Busch, Pederson, Espin, & Weissenburger, 2001; Griffin, Kilgore, Winn, Otis-Wilborn, Hou, & Garvan, 2006; Kilgore, Griffin, Winn, & Otis-Wilborn, 2003; Otis-Wilborn, Winn, Griffin, & Kilgore, 2005; Whitaker, 2000; 2003). These investigations have documented numerous factors in special education settings that contribute to the stresses of the first year of teaching for them, including: role ambiguity, students posing complex behavioral and academic challenges, large caseloads, insufficient curricular and technical resources, inadequate administrative support, inadequate time for planning, few opportunities for collaboration and professional development, and excessive procedural demands. In the following section, we review pertinent literature regarding novice teachers, with a focus on the changing roles of special educators, relationships between novice teachers and their colleagues, and accessibility of the general education curriculum to students with disabilities.