Special educator-teacher co-education: The experience of three Montreal primary schools

In Quebec, students' academic success in a diversity context implies the growing mobilization of everyone working in the school setting, along with changes to the organization of educational services. In this context, service models based on professional collaboration, such as co-teaching, offer new avenues for meeting the needs of all students, especially at the primary level. The purpose of this study was to support and describe the collaborative teaching practices implemented by special educators and teachers. Facilitators and obstacles to co-teaching also emerged, and avenues are proposed to help other schools experiment with special educator-teacher co-teaching in the future. Sharing complementary professional expertise, mutual respect, and time allocated to co-planning, consultation and feedback need to be emphasized to ensure the success of this type of co-teaching. Special education teachers are thus encouraged to broaden their practices and model strategies taught to all students in a class group.