Preparing Educators for Inclusive Bilingual Education: A Boundary Crossing Laboratory Between Professional Groups

Teacher education programs prepare candidates for bilingual, English as a second language, or special ed¬ucation as separate professionals. This creates challenges when teaching bilingual children with disabilities. There is a need to cross boundaries combining expertise and preparing teachers for children’s uniqueness. Re¬sponding to this need, the researchers organized a change laboratory with 14 professors and two State Depart¬ment of Education consultants. The study explored boundary expressions and their relationship to the larger activity. It also looked at the learning that took place during boundary crossing efforts. Boundaries were identi¬fied around bilingual teacher preparation, cross-disciplinary programmatic, and paradigmatic aspects. While boundary crossing at the intrapersonal level and at the interpersonal level were important, the need to engage multiple institutions was centered. In addition, the discussion manifested that for inclusive bilingual education teacher preparation, there was a need to go beyond the institutional level to reach to policy makers and address the sociopolitical resistance against bilingual education. Throughout the study, participants engaged primarily in the epistemic learning actions of analyzing and modeling. Through volitional actions, the participants real¬ized a renewed object for their activity. This study widens the understanding of possibilities for taking shared educational responsibility through boundary crossing between professionals in preparation programs.

The Creative Spirit

Here's a true story. There was once a young boy who was placed into special education for an auditory processing disorder. He was bullied, and teachers treated him as though he was dumb. One day, a teacher questioned his placement, inspiring him to see greater possibilities. Moved out of special ed, the boy suddenly started doing well in regular classes—well enough that he dreamed of studying psychology in college. He was rejected from his top choice, but he tried to figure out another way in. He applied to the opera department instead. He sang his heart out. And he was admitted to the same university that had just rejected him. He saw not one path, but many.

Seclusion and Restraint of Students With Disabilities: A 1-Year Legal Review

News of teenager’s death in California shocked the special education community in early December 2018. Despite the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act’s provision for positive behavior supports for students with disabilities, these inidividuals continue to be secluded and restrained at disproportionately higher rates than their nondisabled peers. Using the Special Ed Connection® database, the authors identified 11 court cases from 2018 and analyzed their contents based on individualized education program (IEP) behavior components, type of restraints used, and prevalence of seclusion. Within these cases, all 12 included students were boys, four IEPs included behavior components, nine students were physically or mechanically restrained, and two were secluded. A review of the four cases that included the use of positive behavior supports is included.