Teachers' and parents' perspectives of inclusion in the ELL regular high school classroom: A phenomenological study

The purpose of this study will be to investigate whether the inclusion of high school students with different disabilities in the English language learning regular classroom has been effective. It will research the factors that can serve as obstacles, or in turn, facilitate the inclusion process. The research design will be a phenomenological study involving an exploratory qualitative method. Qualitative research deals with phenomena that is difficult or impossible to quantify such as meanings, beliefs, perceptions and attributes, among others. This qualitative study will carry out in-depth interviews (semi-structured) to gather the participants' descriptions of their experience, the participants' written or oral self-report, or even their aesthetic expressions (art, narratives, or poetry) that are optimal for collecting data on individuals' personal perspectives and experiences, particularly when sensitive topics such as inclusion are explored. Three English-as-a-second-language teachers and three Special Education teachers will be selected by the researcher using the judgment sampling employed when only limited numbers of people can serve as primary data sources due to the nature of research design, aims and objectives. This type of sampling method is sometimes called purposive, selective or subjective sampling. The researcher will also interview three randomly selected parents of disabled students whose children have been integrated into the Special Education Program for at least three consecutive years. The researcher will try to determine the degree of satisfaction they have had of their children's inclusion process and suggestions they might want to mention in order to improve inclusive practices. This qualitative study will examine the opinions of the English teachers and the Special Education teachers concerning the inclusion of disabled students in the regular English classrooms. The interviews will portrayed the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction teachers and parents have concerning the process of inclusion in the English language learning classroom. This study will also contribute to the improvement of inclusive practices in regular ELL classrooms by pointing out findings regarding barriers or positive practices that might help to remarkably improve this paradigm in Puerto Rico's public school system.