Factors Shaping the Special Education Teacher Workforce

United States educational systems have consistently failed to cultivate a special education teacher (SET) workforce of sufficient size, equitably distributed across schools, to provide effective services for all students with disabilities. Addressing these challenges will require coordination among federal and state education agencies, teacher preparation programs (TPPs), districts, and schools. These institutions are interdependent: State education agencies set licensure standards that incentivize educators to obtain key skills; TPPs prepare candidates with these skills; districts allocate personnel and provide professional development to foster their skills; and schools provide working conditions that shape their ability to effectively serve students. Further, these institutions are situated in the broader sociohistorical context of the United States, where educational institutions hold potential to promote equity but often reinforce hierarchies based on racism, ableism, classism, and other systems of oppression. These organizations and their interactions form a complex ecology in which challenges facing the SET workforce arise; thus, potential solutions are also rooted in and cultivated by this ecology. In this chapter, we synthesize research on the dimensions of the local, state and national, and sociohistorical contexts of schools that collectively shape the SET workforce.