General Education Teachers’ Perceptions of Including Students with Emotional Disturbance in Their Classrooms.

A Dissertation

By: Tyra Hodge

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

As part of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) of 2004 along with Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, American students with an emotional disturbance (ED) have a civil right to a public education as do their typically developing peers, without discrimination. ED students have become a daily part of mainstreaming and inclusion in public school settings. The purpose of this study was to explore general education teachers’ perceptions on including students with ED in their classroom. This study used a qualitative research design, which involved open-ended interviews, a focus group, and respondent validation, which gave me access to the structures of individual experience to understand meanings of such experiences in the context of the research inquiry. Results confirmed that general education teachers believed ED students should, for the most part, be included in general education classes; however, those teachers felt unprepared to deal with ED students, despite support from the administration and special educations teachers. Moreover, teachers felt that this lack of training, along with problems of teaching effectiveness, concerns of safety, and problems of classroom management, were barriers to the inclusion of ED students.