CULTIVATING SUPPORTIVE AND CARING IEP PROCESSES: ADDRESSING THE UNDERLYING CONDITIONS FOR SPECIAL EDUCATORS

Abstract

Students with disabilities and their families have a right to informed consent in a supportive and caring IEP process. To do so, understanding the conditions that impact special educator professional capacity and effective collaboration between special educators and the general education teachers and administrators is necessary. In a participatory activist and action research (PAAR) study at an urban charter high school in Oakland, California, I facilitated a project and study as a practitioner-researcher and worked closely with a co-practitioner researcher (CPR) team of site-based special educators. Using Community Learning Exchange (CLE) axioms and practices (Guajardo et al., 2016) to examine current practices, I determined two finding related to the underlying conditions that are necessary for effective IEP processes: (1) To cultivate the necessary emotional resilience that special educators need for their work, the special educators need structured time for personal and professional reflection, and (2) special educators and general education teachers must engage in conversations about shared values and the school processes necessary for effective collaboration before they can co-plan inclusive practices and co-develop supportive IEP processes for students and families. To address the underlying conditions necessary for effective IEP design and implementation, schools must mitigate the impact of burnout and compassion fatigue by tending to the emotional resilience of special educators and providing space and time for individual and collective reflection and self-care. In addition, school leaders must design systemic structures that provide time and space for collaborating, building relational trust, and centering decisions on a shared values system that encourage collaborative practices to address the needs of students with disabilities. Broader implications include improving the preparation of administrators and special educators for the responsibilities related to serving students with disabilities, providing coaching and mentoring to administrators and special educators early in their careers, and expanding opportunities for building relational trust and deeper understanding of the hopes and dreams of our students and families.