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International Journal of Inclusive EducationVol. 10, No. 6, November 2006, pp. 645–655

ISSN 1360–3116 (print)/ISSN 1464–5173 (online)/06/060645–11© 2006 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13603110500296547

Narrative study of a high school English teacher’s beliefs about teaching students identified as having a disabilityB. Del RosarioAlbuquerque, NM, USATaylor and Francis LtdTIED_A_129637.sgm10.1080/13603110500296547International Journal of Inclusive Education1360-3116 (print)/1464-5173 (online)Original Article2005Taylor & Francis Ltd0000000002005BaylorDel Rosario3413 Espejo Street N.EAlbuquerqueNew Mexico [email protected]

A qualitative study probing the connection between a high school English teacher’s lived experienceand beliefs about teaching students identified as having a disability using interview story method wasundertaken. Struggles with family quickly emerged as a dominant storyline in the participant’sdiscussion of her beliefs about teaching such students. The teacher’s value of diversity in students,regardless of disability/ability status, evolved from family relations. The narrative also illuminatesthe importance of persistence and compromise in preserving and developing relationships thatextend to colleagues and students. Lessons learned from gathering the narrative are also discussed.

Introduction

Narrative forms of inquiry have received much attention from educational researchersin recent years (Connelly & Clandinin, 1987; Eisner, 1998). According toPolkinghorne (1988, p. 1), narrative is ‘the primary form by which human experienceis made meaningful’. Peterson (1997, p. 157) adds that in this genre of research, theinquirer attempts ‘to know an experience in the same way that the subject knows it’.Narrative is also linked to storytelling. Bruner (2002. p. 15) states that ‘narrative inall its forms is a dialectic between what was expected and what came to pass’; whilePolkinghorne (1995, p. 5) adds that such stories must be ‘configured into a temporalunity by means of plot’. The use of plot, in which critical events or incidents in one’slife are arranged to highlight points of contention and consequent resolutions, is inte-gral to narrative. Taken together, biographical, life history, and other narrative meth-odologies highlight the perspective of participants in story form.

In accordance with this approach, I obtained the interview story of a high schoolEnglish teacher, Janice Black,1 as part of my doctoral study examining various

Correspondence to: B. Del Rosario, 3413 Espejo Street N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87111, USA.E-mail: [email protected]

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research methods. I explored Janice’s ‘historicity’ (Herr & Anderson, 1993, p. 185)— her lived experience — and its connectedness to her beliefs about teaching studentslabelled with a disability placed in her 9th–12th grade English classes. Havingobserved and interacted with Janice on numerous occasions as a fellow teacher at thesame school, I was drawn to her willingness in working with students with needs. Hernarrative was developed through a series of interviews in which she was asked to talkabout her upbringing, college years, and choice to become and life as a teacher in rela-tion to her beliefs and assumptions about such students. This interview also served asa platform for Janice and me to reflect on these beliefs.

Background

Janice and I were both teachers at Scholastic Alternative High School during the2003–04 school year. I was the special education teacher as well as coordinator ofservices for students identified as English Language Learners (ELL). The school wascreated specifically for students unable to attend a traditional high school for onereason or another (e.g. their need to work during the day or need for on-campuschildcare). Students identified as having a disability comprise about 12% of thestudent body. The majority of such students are labelled ‘learning disabled’ (LD),while the rest are identified as having ‘emotional disturbance’ (ED). All are includedin general education classes for the majority of the school day and receive theiraccommodations (e.g. extended time on exams and opportunities to take breaksoutside the classroom) directly from classroom teachers — although some are morewilling than others to implement such strategies.

As I got to know Janice through our collaborative meetings to facilitate theinclusion of such students and our involvement in the district-wide literacy program,I realized we share common views about teaching. We both believe all teachers,regardless of grade-level or subject matter taught, for example, are responsible forinstructing students who struggle with basic literacy. We also feel strongly about usingpositive approaches, rather than punitive ones, in dealing with disruptive or unrulybehaviour.

As the school year progressed, I gradually found myself wondering how Janicecame to think in a similar way as I did about students with needs given our vastlydifferent backgrounds. Janice has never taken any coursework in special educationbeyond the single introductory course required of teacher candidates by teachereducation programs in our state, while my graduate teacher preparation focusedalmost exclusively on inclusion of special populations. I was interested in uncoveringthe motives behind Janice’s willingness and patience in working with students identi-fied as having a disability when so many of our colleagues were not.

Explanation of the methodology

Teachers’ lives are complex. Many twists and turns occur throughout one’s careerand personal life that cannot be recorded or captured through traditional quantitative

High school English teachers’ beliefs about teaching students with disability 647

methods. A questionnaire using a Likert scale, for example, cannot measure theeffects of one’s own learning over time on his or her current beliefs about instructionand curriculum. Teacher beliefs, as Muchmore (2001, p. 90) points out, do not ‘existin a vacuum … they are formulated and are held by particular people in particularcontext’.

Although there is an abundance of studies examining teachers’ beliefs, attitudes,and perceptions about students with disabilities and inclusive education (e.g. Gerber,1992; Fulk & Hirth, 1994; Minke et al., 1996; Villa et al., 1996; Cornoldi et al., 1998;Chiang, 1999; Balboni and Pedrabissi, 2000; Opdal & Wormnaes, 2001; Wall,2002), including qualitative studies that use interview data (e.g. Giangreco et al.,1993; Brantlinger, 1996), none has examined in-depth the influence of personal andprofessional experience of teachers on their ways of thinking about students withneeds and their inclusion in typical classroom settings. The main premise for usingsuch an approach is to give value to teachers’ unique and rich histories, which impacttheir thought processes. Taken together, this narrative study adds to the literature onteachers’ beliefs about inclusion and to the existing literature on teacher stories (e.g.Ball & Goodson, 1985; Goodson, 1992; Craig, 1997; Landay, 2001; Johnson &Golombek, 2002; Luna et al., 2004).

Hammersley (1998, p. 24) states there are two ways to analyse interview data.First, researchers may use participants’ accounts ‘as a source of information aboutthe world; in other words as a substitute for his or her own observations’. Thisapproach is often used when a cultural site or experience is inaccessible to theresearcher. Researchers can also focus on ‘perspectives, beliefs, attitudes, inten-tions, [and] motives’ (p. 24) when analysing interviews. The purpose of this laterapproach is to understand the reasons why participants think about and behave incertain ways toward people, objects, ideas, and events of interest as this study seeksto accomplish.

Specifically, this study is consistent with the life history method described byVan Manen (1990). It is a methodology characterized by a deep respect for partic-ipant perspective and meaning-making of their lived experience. I employed aseries of individual interviews that initially focused the conversation on concretesituations and events in Janice’s life, which related to her beliefs about studentsidentified with a disability. Whenever Janice seemed to stray from the topic athand, I posed questions that brought the discourse ‘back to the level of concreteexperience’ (p. 68) using phrases such as ‘Can you be more specific about howMiles [Janice’s father] treated you?’ and ‘You spoke about being a parent. How isthis like being a teacher?’ During subsequent interviews, Janice reviewed writtendescription of personal accounts with interpretations as stimulus for reflection andfurther discussion/re-interpretation. I then posed questions such as ‘How did youfeel when he [Miles] finally acknowledged your work?’ and ‘What did you takeaway from the experience?’ to get at the essence of ‘particulars’ (p. 10) in herstory. Such an approach, according to Van Manen, allows for the exploration ofexperiences to their fullest. Excerpts presented in this story resulted from thiscollaborative effort.

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Janice’s story: life incidents and their connection to beliefs

Janice is the oldest of five children. She was born and raised in a small town in theMidwest. Her father was an accountant, while her mother was a homemaker. Janice’sdescription of her family was anything but typical. Her father Miles specifically is acommanding and influential figure who is the antithesis to the kind of individual andcareer person Janice would later become in life. She states:

My father and I disagree on just about everything. To me, he was this shrewd business-man. He was an accountant by training. His ideas about education were all negative.From his perspective, teachers fell in the category of that old motto, ‘Those who can do.Those who can’t teach’. That was far from reality, but according to him none of the teach-ers I ever had or those of my siblings’ were ever right. In fact, he considered most of themto be idiots.

Although I felt we had a fairly close relationship, I nevertheless was surprised by herfocus on and candidness with talking about Miles during our initial interview. Shewent on to say that she did not respond to his disparaging words not because theywere true, but because of her young age and immaturity. As a result, Janice just‘carried things for a long time’. By the time she reached middle-school, however, shebegan standing-up to her father because she ‘was the oldest … but it got me into a lotof trouble!’ It was during these early adolescent years that Janice first recalledadvocating for someone other than herself. Her need to stand-up for those whom sheperceives cannot defend themselves is rooted in this thwarted experience.Consequently, Janice feels a connection with and compassion for ‘kids who don’t fitthe traditional mould … kids whose home situations like mine are not perfect’.

Like many university students, Janice initially had a difficult time deciding what tostudy. Her indecisiveness, however, was caused mainly by Miles’ continued imposi-tion of his views on what she ought to pursue as a career. He wanted her to becomea lawyer or an entrepreneur in order to ‘make money’. Consequently, Janice minoredin business administration because that was what he ‘would have wanted me to do’.Around the time she was required to declare a major, however, she realizes that lawand business were not ‘in my heart’. Janice enrols in literature and theatre classes,instead, and eventually graduates with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Shortly after college, Janice got married and had children. She felt it was importantto be available for them, while they were young. Consequently, she stayed home untilher youngest child entered school. She worked part-time for a few years in retail andeven did some acting on television for a local business commercial, which providedsome extra income, but more importantly flexible hours for her to participate in herchildren’s activities. The oldest of her four children was 23 years old, while the young-est was 16 at the time this study was undertaken.

Learning to respect differences

Much to Miles’ chagrin, Janice became a teacher in 1995. The main reason shesettled on a career as an educator was because she ‘loved children’ — a ‘romantic and


surface’ (Nieto, 2003, p. 26) explanation many teachers initially offer as their motivefor entering the profession. Janice qualifies her response: ‘I have four kids and beinga mom is very important to me. So it works well for my schedule — although I didn’tdo it entirely for that reason’. As the semester went on, Janice and I began to reflecton her easily discernible compassion for many of the students at our school — anattribute she felt was shaped by both her childhood and later experience as parent of‘four very different, but wonderful children’. Janice compares her perspective withothers:

I think some teachers, especially young ones and those who don’t have children, are some-times pretty strict. You know, ‘a rule’s a rule’. I know as a parent I was that way with myown children in the beginning. I realized, however, that every single situation is different.The same goes for students … we [even those who have children] sometimes forget thoughwhat it was like.

School policies and practices such as ‘zero tolerance’, she adds, often overlook indi-vidual differences among students. She suggests that schools strive to be more:

open minded about things and listen … really listen to the student’s side because some-times things will come up that they [i.e., the teachers and administrators] never thoughtof, but does make sense, which may lead to the understanding of why a kid does what heor she does.

Janice holds firm to her belief that ‘rules that apply equally to all kids [are] wrong’ andreiterates the notion that schools need to ‘look at every student and every situationdifferently … [because] every kid is different’. She feels this is the most importantlesson for teachers, especially new ones, to learn.

Testing: one size does not fit all

Janice began teaching at Scholastic High, a school located in the outskirts of a largemetropolitan city in the south-western USA. Over half the students in the state’sschool system are of Hispanic origin. A sizeable number as well (approximately 11%)are of Native American Heritage. Janice chose to work at the school because she was‘attracted to those students who weren’t maybe real mainstream … [and who camefrom family] backgrounds that weren’t perfect’ like her own.

Many of the students at the school struggle with academics. Whether they are poorreaders to begin with (approximately 50% of students read below grade level) or aresimply put-off by regimented school rules and norms found in most high schools,such students perform significantly below average on state-mandated tests. Althoughpart of her job is to prepare her students to pass the State High School Exit Exam,2

Janice adamantly voices her opposition to the use of such assessment for graduationpurposes (e.g. at faculty and literacy cadre meetings). She explains:

Our population is becoming, if it isn’t already, a very diverse place. I hope that we canswing the other way as far as testing goes because the people in charge are not really educa-tors to begin with — even superintendents. Even if such individuals had been in the class-room as teachers in the past they’re not teaching right now at this moment and are not

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aware of what is really going on. We need to start realizing that there are other things ofvalue in life. Test scores obviously do not show all of the skills that a student knows. I justdon’t think these tests pick up every part of one’s intelligence.

I’m not saying that tests are not important. I do think they are important, but they don’tencompass everything about the student. I don’t think so anyway. In some kids strengthscan really show up on tests like the Knowledge Inventory3 and that’s fine. However, thereare still a lot of kids who have a lot of strengths that aren’t necessarily exposed on stan-dardized tests. Multiple Intelligence [Gardner, 1983] is a concept that’s as valid as the onewe currently follow and should be considered.

If students complete all of the school’s course and service learning requirements, butdo not pass the exit exam, they are given a ‘Satisfactory Completion Certificate’instead of a diploma. Janice feels this is unfair to those whose strengths lie outsidetraditional academic areas and have a difficult time passing such tests. She points outthat she has had students as 12th graders who, although having earned the Certificate,were prevented from participating in graduation ceremonies ‘simply because [theyhad not passed] the test’.

According to Janice, the push for ‘high stakes testing’ emphasizes, for a largesegment of the school’s population, what they cannot do, rather than what they cando. She also feels that even if every student could pass the exam, non-academic qual-ities such as work ethic and collaborative skills that many students possess and ‘coulddo well in’, for example, should be acknowledged and further developed with as muchfervour. Janice points to her own ‘tender-hearted’ disposition in dealing withstudents, more so than her expertise in English grammar and literature, as key tobeing a good teacher — a quality acknowledged by some teachers, but never explicitlyby her father. Janice emphasizes that she does not want to make the same mistakewith her own children and students as her father had made with her.

Unlike Miles who feels that ‘he is always right’ no matter what the circumstance,Janice possesses a genuine desire to learn from others. She feels that reflecting on herpractice individually and with colleagues, as she has done during ‘critical friends’sessions (for description of process, see Barth, 2001, p. 69) at her previous school andmore recently in a graduate-level class she was taking as part of her English as aSecond Language (ESL) endorsement, is important to her growth as a teacher.Discussing further her thoughts about standardized testing, Janice displays the reflex-ive approach she uses in dealing with such a contentious practice:

We talked about the issue of high stakes testing in my [university] class the other day. Wetalked about how there is no way really that one can design a test that can meet the needsof every student — a test that can capture their diverse strengths. Standardized testing inwhich only one kind of answer is acceptable is simply unfair. Taking a test like the State HighSchool Exit Exam simply doesn’t determine whether or not one will survive in the world.

A lot of times schools are wonderful schools, but they are put on probation. We have tolook at each school and each student individually to see what their strengths and needs are— unlike the one-size-fits-all approach we use by requiring students to take tests. I don’tthink we need to get rid of or lower standards. We need to have high standards and every-thing. However, a variety of things need to be looked at because test scores do not capturethe student.


I’m always in awe of teachers who are good at differentiating their instruction andproviding information in a variety of ways to all of their students, because I’ve done thatand I know how difficult it is to implement. I’m not sure some of our leaders know thishas to happen if all children are to succeed. I am learning a lot in the class I am taking.I really am.

Conversing and reflecting with other professionals helps Janice solidify (and at timesdisconfirm) her position on various issues. In a later interview, She adds that ‘trulylistening’ to fellow teachers contributes to healthy work relationships. For Janice,such interactions are important because they are as much about developing relation-ships as they are about problem-solving.

Learning to compromise

Janice feels the lack of confidence and low self-esteem many students experience atScholastic High can be reduced if teachers and parents ‘simply value these kids asmuch as others [e.g. students who are successful in traditional school settings]’. Sheshares personal experience to support her assertion:

I’m a definitely way better parent than my father and mother were even though my ownfamily history — my divorce from my first husband — didn’t work out quite the way I hadhoped. I think my children have a much more stable support system at home because Ilisten to them no matter what the circumstance or what they’ve done. They know that theycan trust me. There’s no doubt in my mind or my children’s minds. I am a good motherbecause of this and one who they can always come to if they need help. I approach teachingthe same way.

Teachers need to be ‘open-minded’ if they want to reach all students. Addressing theunderlying cause of a problem is a better approach than simply reacting to a student’smisbehaviour or poor performance as some school administrators, teachers, andparents do.

In contrast, referring to her parents whom she feels are perfect examples of how notto raise children, Janice comments, ‘it’s amazing how you really can learn from badrole models’. Maintaining a relationship with them is difficult because she has had toaccept their flaws and at times demeaning remarks about issues important to her. She,however, feels that in many ways accepting their shortcomings is similar to acceptingthose of her own children, students, and even colleagues. This acceptance has helpedher to grow on a personal level. She speaks further on her mended relationship:

As an adult, I do think my father is proud of who I am now based on some of the thingshe’s said — although he thinks I’m going to get killed one of these days working in ahigh school especially this one. He’s proud. I know this because we often talk. I some-times speak with my parents two or three times a week. … My mom too is proud of whatI do. She’s never made a big deal about us and what her grandchildren have done —although I think she is probably proud. I think adults have to let kids know and I’vedone that with my own kids. I have very strange parents, but ones who I still talk with alot. Sometimes I think we have a ‘superficially’ close relationship, but I know they loveme and I love them. I’ve had to work at dealing with all this and I’ve learned to acceptthem for who they are.

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Janice speaks with pride as she describes her father’s changed attitude towards herand her chosen profession. Such outcome, of course, would not have occurred if shehad given up on their relationship and resisted the compromise needed to make itwork as she had contemplated doing on many occasions — ‘it took a long time. … Imean until I was in my 30s to overcome the negativity that permeated from him’. Sheadds, ‘Just like the kids here, if you were looking through the window in my home youwould have thought I had a wonderful childhood. I didn’t’.

Discussion

What can be said about Janice’s beliefs about teaching students identified as having adisability placed in her general education classes? The answer can be ascertained notonly by what she says, but also by what she does not say. Not once during our inter-view did Janice use the word ‘disabled’ or ‘handicapped’ to describe the studentsidentified with a disability at our school. She often refers to students both with andwithout such labels as ‘kids who don’t fit in’ and ‘kids who are different’. This is thecase even when I remind her of the purpose of the study. Taken together, her narra-tive implies support for the notion of emphasizing similarities, rather than differencesamong students — an underlying tenet of inclusive education.

Lincoln & Guba (1985) assert that many of the conventional procedures that needto be carried-out in order to produce generalizable findings are incompatible with thenaturalistic epistemology as the case in this study. In order to bolster the trustworthi-ness of this inquiry I provided Janice an opportunity to review and provide feedbackon manuscript drafts. This step, along with the co-constructing of themes and inter-pretations mentioned earlier, resulted in considerable contribution by her to the finalreport. Such an approach, I believe, overcomes the criticism brought up by Nespor &Barylske (1991) that the narrative researcher alone determines which narrative will bepresented and how it will be represented. As researcher, I do possess considerableauthorial power, but one I have chosen to use in a collaborative manner.

Although generalization of research findings from case-specific studies like the onedescribed in this paper cannot be made in the traditional sense, Eisner (1998) arguesthat the demand for reflexivity from all parties engaged in narrative, including audi-ence, can yield insight into one’s own situation. Having been raised in a householdfraught with familial struggles myself (e.g. alcoholism), for example, I resonate withand value reading accounts of others who have been faced with challenges and havetriumphed over them. The influence of Janice’s personal life on her professionaloutlook has also prompted me to seek-out the connection between my history andbeliefs as an educator. Such reflective practice has been documented as essential forteacher growth and development (e.g. Barth, 2001; Cauntreels, 2003; Garmston,2005).

Udvari-Solner (1996), in her study of teacher behaviour and classroom culture,reports that teachers’ identification with holistic ways of thinking (e.g. Vygotskian andconstructivist theories) contributes to their support for inclusion. Such teachers feelthat student success depends largely on their willingness and competence in accom-


modating for diversity in their classrooms. Similarly, Janice’s critical perspectivetowards certain school practices and adherence to multiple intelligence theory alignswith inclusive thinking such as the notion that all students possess strengths, whichmust be uncovered and incorporated into pedagogy if all learners are to succeed. Thisin-depth study of a single teacher may help explain the influence of theoreticalperspective and assumptions on teachers’ ways of thinking about diverse learners andtheir education.

Conclusion

I hope those who read Janice’s story will be inspired by the resilience she showed infacing and overcoming life challenges. At the immediate and practical level, however,I hope other educators who face resistance in their advocacy for inclusive practice, asdocumented by numerous researchers (e.g. Coates, 1989; Stoller, 1992; Valeo &Bunch, 1998; Liu & Pearson, 1999), find some comfort in knowing general educationteachers such as Janice do exist — individuals who deal with conflict and struggle intheir personal and professional lives not as hindrances, but as commonplace elementsto learn from in one’s existence.

Although not perfect, Janice’s current relationship with her father provides a lifelesson that finds its way into her teaching — that all relationships are worth preserv-ing and developing because all individuals, including those who challenge our senseof right, at times, have the potential to change with our help. Taken together, hernarrative is a story of success. In the same manner that Janice seeks from othersrespect for students’ unique experiences, the interview story method employed in thisstudy values her rich personal history, which has influenced her current way of think-ing about students. Given the challenge in working with students labelled disabled orat-risk, this narrative approach holds promise for action-oriented research not only asa tool for allowing teachers to reflect on the roots of their beliefs which in turn mayhelp them better understand the stories of their students, but also the potential tomotivate other teachers to rediscover their own histories to learn from and possiblyact upon.

Notes

1. Janice Black is a pseudonym, as are the names of other individuals, institutions and identifiers(e.g. state and locally administered school assessments) used in this paper.

2. Standardized achievement test in reading, language arts, math, science and writing as part ofthe state’s high school graduation requirement.

3. Standardized achievement test in reading, language arts, mathematics, science and social stud-ies administered to all students from grades 4–9 in the state.

Notes on contributor

Baylor del Rosario is a former public school teacher and current doctoral student atthe University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. His research focuses

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on development of the inclusive philosophy and practices among preservice andinservice teachers.

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