M1: PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT_WESLEY

Leah Wesley
M1: Personal Philosophy Statement
SPED 854
University of Kansas
15 June 2015

M1: PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT_WESLEY

Collaboration is important in special education because it is what enables
educators to be successful in their work of leading students to have access to
instruction. Collaboration can make the quality of an educators work higher than
it would be if the educator did not collaborate.
The key players involved in collaboration in special education are the
special education teacher, the general education teacher, the principle, the
paraprofessional, the parents or guardians, and depending on the needs of the
student, possibly the school counselor, school psychologist, and an outside
behavioral and/or occupational therapist. For the students needs to be met as
closely as possible, the key players must collaborate to ensure that each players
experience (successes and difficulties) with the student are known by the other
players so that there is consistency.
Factors that must be in place to ensure successful collaboration in special
education include parity, consistency, and an agreed upon mode of
communication. The experiences and ideas of each key player must be given
equal weight. If the group agrees to meet to collaborate bi-monthly, this
agreement must be maintained consistently. A mode of communication that is
practical for each key player is important, so that there can be consistency.
Potential barriers to successful collaboration in special education include
lack of parity and lack of consistency. If some of the key players experiences are
not given as much importance as the others, true collaboration cannot occur. If
the key players do not collaborate consistently, true collaboration cannot occur.

M1: PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT_WESLEY

There are a variety of ways to collaborate in special education. Some of
those ways include meeting to set IEP goals with all the key players, having
regular communication tools such as notebooks or Google documents which can
be edited by all members, and regular meetings to gage the educational progress
of the student and see what should stay the same as well as what should
change.
Important time points in a students education in which collaboration
should occur include - most obviously - the beginning of the school year and end
of the school year. To be proactive, however, it is important that the key players
meet semi-regularly to ensure that all players are meeting all of the students
needs.
Among many factors that affect collaboration in special education are
culture and power. Culture can affect collaboration if key players are not
culturally sensitive or there are misunderstandings due to cultural differences. It
could become difficult for key players to be on the same page if there are any
such misunderstandings. Power can affect collaboration in that, if any key
players desire to have more power than others, parity is lost, and thus
collaboration is not possible.