Teachers’ voices concerning collaborative teams within an inclusive elementary school

Abstract

This qualitative study examined aspects of the inclusive program in an elementary school in a rural section of the upper Midwest of the United States. This article describes a university and elementary school research partnership to study collaboration among the general education teachers and the special education staff (teachers and assistants) in the inclusive elementary school. Interviews, focus groups, and observations were analyzed to determine how the school approached the challenges of collaboration and then implemented solutions. The findings are interwoven through the teachers’ voices and the researcher’s observation notes about the challenges of scheduling, team‐teacher characteristics, and modeling and support in the classroom. The implications of the findings describe how the collected information is used to enlighten pre‐service teachers enrolled in a college course on collaboration.