Blended Interdisciplinary Teacher Preparation in Early Education and Intervention

Abstract

Interdisciplinary teacher preparation programs that blend personnel standards from early childhood special education and early childhood education are being developed across the country. States are designing stand-alone blended teacher licensure programs in early education. This article describes a national study that explored and described characteristics of these newly conceptualized approaches to teacher preparation. Methods included quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis procedures. Findings indicate that there are many concerns and issues among faculty who are members of interdisciplinary teams in these new programs. The authors describe prominent issues in this emerging field of teacher preparation and provide a set of recommendations based on the literature and the findings from this study.