Building Communities of Practice for Beginning Pre-K Teachers of Children With Autism: A Multiple Case Study

Teacher turnover is not only a great expense, but most importantly it adversely affects the students. Therefore, in order to limit teacher turnover, school districts must develop a plan where special education teachers are supported through their most difficult years. Through the use of a multiple case study, the researcher sought to answer the following research questions: What role do induction activities play in the development of beginning pre-k teachers of children with autism in a large urban public school district? What types of induction activities do pre-k teachers of children with Autism receive during their induction years? How do beginning pre-k teachers of children with Autism describe how their induction program impacted their craft? How do beginning teachers of children with Autism describe their social learning experiences in the induction process? The researcher focused on teachers who teach children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) due to the alarmingly high rate of children being diagnosed with ASD and the growing number of students with ASD being serviced by the public school system (Community Report on Autism, 2014). This study utilized the theoretical lens of Wenger’s communities of practice to frame this research. The primary methods of data collection were semi-structured interviews. The data collected from the semi-structured interviews were transcribed and coded for emerging themes and applied to the theoretical framework. framework. The following themes emerged from the interview data: (a) The teachers in this study reported the need for more support in areas directly related to their classroom responsibilities and hands-on assistance primarily when dealing with difficult behaviors. However, they found themselves frequently having to figure things out on their own; (b) The pre-k district office provided support to the teachers, however, the teachers felt it was not enough and often found themselves leaning on more experienced pre-k sped teachers for assistance; (c) Most of the teachers in this study were not certified to teach special education or children with autism; (d) The district authorities reported that class size in the self-contained ASD classes were way above the recommended ratio of 3:1; (g) Administrative support is crucial to the success of beginning teachers of children with autism. These themes represented the need for the implementation of communities of practice as the teachers in this study naturally relied on more experienced pre-k sped teachers for assistance as depicted in Wenger’s social learning theory