Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

An Exploration Of Teacher Dispositions: Expectation Of Potential, Kathleen Louise Saleh

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This qualitative investigation of three, K-12, in-service special education teachers’ dispositions employs the pillars of Disability Studies in Education (Connor, Gabel, Gallagher, & Morton, 2008) and Villegas’ (2007) definition of disposition to interpret the observational and interview data. Central to the study are the teachers’ beliefs about their students’ learning potential and the impact of those beliefs on their instructional behaviors—dispositions—that support or hinder social justice. Consideration is also given to the educational and life experiences that the educators identify as contributing to their professional disposition. Analysis of the data demonstrated five primary themes. (1) Disposition, although influential in the …