Phenomenological study of special education teachers using an emergency license

The shortage of special education teachers is critical. One means used to increase the supply of available teachers is to issue an emergency license to teachers not fully certified in special education. This is a phenomenological study of four general education teachers practicing special education using an emergency license. Their experience is characterized around four themes---diminished control over their lives, teaching, but on the "outside," supportive relationships, and becoming "new" and or renewed. Universal themes of lived space, lived time, and lived human relationships provide the lens through which their experiences are interpreted.