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VIDBE-Q Volume 63 Issue 2
from meaning units across all participants and/or in more than one interview question
were retained. Categories that did not appear as meaning units of all participants or
across several questions were discarded for lack of support. Finally, categories were
clustered together into themes based on similarity of content.
Results
The results from this study are currently in-progress for publication. In order to
preserve the integrity of the final publication, we only provide a brief summary here.
Demographic information mirrored other reported data regarding what we know about
teachers in general in special education (e.g. Caucasian, female). Teachers represented
a continuum of years of experience and across educational settings and geographic
locations. Participants overwhelmingly indicated a need for both pre-service training and
professional development regarding working with students who are deafblind. Teachers
indicated that the unique needs of students who are deaf-blind around communication,
technology, collaboration, assessment, and teaching strategies required more in-depth
knowledge than teacher preparations programs currently offer. Finally, this presentation
opened the door for dialogue among professionals regarding solutions to preparing
teachers at the pre-service level as well as professional development in individual school
districts.
References
Bruce, S. (2007). Teacher preparation for the education of students who are deafblind:
A retrospective and prospective view. Deaf-Blind Perspectives, 44(2). Retrieved
from http://documents.nationaldb.org/dbp/apr2007.htm#prep
