The Work-Place Experience of Non-Team Special Area Teachers As Affected By Institutional Procedures In Middle Schools Structured For Team-Teaching

Special area teachers in five middle schools were interviewed for the study. Questions were derived from research on the advantages of team-teaching. The team structure gives support for improving teaching strategies and lends a sense of community to the learning environment. Teams can collaborate in meeting student needs and in solving discipline problems. Their classrooms are clustered together lending to the development of a sense of unity by affiliation. The special area teachers were not included on such interdisciplinary teaching teams. The qualitative trends and themes that developed in this study indicated that the advantages available in team-teaching were difficult to maintain in the special areas. Due to scheduling logistics and the distance between special area and team classrooms, little possibility for collaboration and communication exists. The sense of unity that comes from consistent proximity to a group was weak. Feelings of alienation were expressed. The teachers felt that they taught more class periods, prepared for more variety of curricula, and covered more duties than team teachers