Middle School General Education Teachers' Perspectives on Including Students with Learning Disabilities

A focus group of 5 general education schoolteachers from one rural middle school in Hawaii was conducted to investigate their perspectives on the unintended effects of including students with learning disabilities. The general education teachers were asked how the inclusion of students with learning disabilities had impacted (a) their professional lives, (b) the students with learning disabilities, and (c) other (nondisabled) students in ways that they did not initially anticipate. Participants' comments were analyzed using content analysis. Central themes that emerged from the focus group reflected issues of (a) personal knowledge, practices, and perceptions; (b) co-teaching; and (c) the effects of inclusion on students with and without learning disabilities. Among other issues, possible reasons for the divergent experiences of teachers at different grade levels are explored.