Serving students with moderate to severe disabilities: Perspectives of career and technical education teachers in Mississippi

Positive postsecondary outcomes have become a social issue as the gap between typical peers and students with disabilities grows for employment or postsecondary education. Using evidenced-based instruction strategies to create effective transition instruction has become a required and successful means of improving postsecondary outcomes for individuals with moderate to severe disabilities. The career and technical programs have been identified as an environment that currently implements evidence-based practices that have shown promise of improving instruction. However, participation is limited among individuals with moderate to severe disabilities in the career and technical programs. Through this study the researcher sought to understand how career and technical educators perceive their programs as appropriate learning environments for students with moderate to severe disabilities. A mixed-methods design was used to gather perspectives of career and technical education teachers. A survey was given to ask career and technical education teachers about their personal perspectives, current dispositions, and the perceived barriers for including students with moderate to severe disabilities in their career and technical classroom. Open-ended questions were included at the end of the survey to better understand or identify new perceptions, dispositions, or barriers of career and technical education teachers toward teaching students with moderate to severe disabilities. An analysis of the responses determined that although there are concerns and lack of resources, the overall perspective of career and technical education teachers is positive. According to the results of this study, career and technical education teachers in Mississippi see their classrooms as beneficial and as an appropriate learning environment for students with moderate to severe disabilities