The experiences of teachers serving learning disabled students in special education: A phenomenological study

This study used Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method to investigate and document the lived experience of special education teachers serving one or more successful students in special education.;A direct analysis of the psychological meaning of naive descriptions of personal experiences provided by these teachers was conducted. Taped one hour interviews were performed with three volunteer special education instructors who worked closely with a particular student who received special education services under the Learning Disability criteria. The interviews were transcribed, meaning units were delineated and themes were determined. Structures were identified from which an overall description of the meaning and essence of the teachers' experiences was constructed. The phenomenological psychological method was chosen as the most appropriate method to be used due to its emphasis on individualized experiences.;The results of the descriptive phenomenological analysis produced an overall structure with 8 constituents common to the teachers' perceptions of students' experiences: The experience of the perception of development of learning abilities by disabled children (Ss) by specialized professional educators (Ps) begins by P perceiving that behavioral boundaries for the disabled learners (S) have to be set by another whom S trusts. P's continual involvement with S enables P to observe and identify features of S's educational world that have positive consequences for S. Four key features were: S's engagement in extra-curricular activities; the acquisition of certain coping skills; performances that indicate S can enter into mainstream classes; and, S's ability to help other disabled learners. An acceptable degree of educational achievement is reached when S displays a responsible degree of independence and when S shows that S (he or she) can determine and handle his or her own goals and their consequences.