Teaching in Special Education: Managing the Chaos

Teaching In Special Education: Managing the Chaos addresses the question-how do special education teachers function in general education settings? The text describes the experiences of special education teachers in diverse settings at a time when federal law and assessment requirements drive educational policy. Ferrelli uses interviews and observation to tell the stories of six special education teachers as they go about the business of teaching, illuminating the elements of special education teacher practice and documenting the tensions manifested in the interaction between special education and general education teachers. Such tensions create a distinct sense of separation between the practices that constitute special education, and those of general education that are typical of American educational policy and practice today. In providing voice for these teachers, this text fills a vacancy in the currently existing studies of teacher practice.