ABSTRACT

Despite a growing population of students being served in Alternative Education Settings (AES) and a severe teacher shortage in AES, most traditional teacher preparation programs do not specifically address teaching in alternative settings. Unsurprisingly, teachers in these settings report being inadequately prepared to meet the complex needs of students with significant behavioral challenges. Moreover, when behaviorally challenged students exit AES, they are often at a greater social and academic disadvantage than when they enrolled. This grounded theory study followed three groups (N = 40) of teacher candidates as they completed fieldwork in one of five AES as part of a special education course at a large public university in South-eastern Pennsylvania. Analysis of teacher candidates' field journals suggested an emerging theory of ‘alternative education settings as non-schools.’ For these teacher candidates, familiar structures for teaching, learning, and behaviour did not apply in AES, thus delegitimizing AES as schools.

摘要

尽管越来越多的学生在替代教育环境 (AES) 中接受服务，并且 AES 的教师严重短缺，但大多数传统的教师准备计划并没有专门解决替代环境中的教学问题。不出所料，这些环境中的教师报告说，他们准备不足，无法满足有重大行为挑战的学生的复杂需求。此外，当行为受到挑战的学生退出 AES 时，他们通常比入学时处于更大的社会和学术劣势。这项扎根理论研究跟踪了三组（N = 40）教师候选人，因为他们在宾夕法尼亚州东南部的一所大型公立大学的特殊教育课程中完成了五个 AES 之一的实地考察。教师候选人分析 实地期刊提出了一种新兴理论，即“非学校的替代教育环境”。对于这些教师候选人，熟悉的教学、学习和行为结构不适用于 AES，从而使 AES 作为学校失去了合法性。