An examination of preservice teachers' perceptions of the dispositions toward teaching students with emotional and behavioral disabilities: The effects of integrating intra/interpersonal concepts in teacher training

This purpose of this qualitative study was to examine graduate preservice teachers' perceptions of/and growth in their dispositions toward teaching students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities (EBD) as concepts of intra/interpersonal knowledge were integrated into their coursework and field experience. This study used the qualitative research designs of educational ethnography using a longitudinal panel design to examine four documents, already embedded in the teacher training program, over the course of the year of training in a Professional Development School that prepared teachers to work with students with EBD. Eight preservice graduate students (interns) who were enrolled in a teacher training program for students with EBD agreed to participate in the study. A content analysis examined program documents at the beginning of the field experience, during the field experience and upon ending the field experience to determine each intern's progress. The framework for this study was Usher's (2002) five dispositions of effective teachers: Empathy, Positive view of others, and Positive view of self, Authenticity and Meaningful Purpose and Vision. These dispositions were refined into descriptors and then used for open and a priori coding of the program documents. The results of this study indicated a direct link to the changes that the interns made in relation to Usher's five dispositions of effective teachers to the concepts of intra/interpersonal knowledge they learned in their coursework and field experiences. The concepts of intra/interpersonal knowledge provided the interns of this study with the skills and attitudes with which to make better professional choices.; A triangulation of the documents embedded within the program provided a view into the interns' perceptions of their progressive growth in intra/interpersonal skills and professionalism as well as the concepts of intra/interpersonal knowledge they valued as instrumental in their professional growth as teachers.; This study revealed that when concepts of intra/interpersonal knowledge were integrated into the preservice teacher training program the interns' perceptions of their dispositions toward teaching students with EBD were modified.