Researchers have been diverted from pursuing topics related to instruction in order to try to put out brush fires set by those who would gut the continuum of placements in favor of full inclusion. Teachers have been forced into hastily conceived models of inclusion and collaborative teaching. And those of us in teacher education have all too often caved in to pressures from the marketplace to prepare teachers certified to teach students from two or three different categories of disability as well as general education students. On top of this, we're expected to prepare novice preservice teachers to be ready to teach collaboratively with general education colleagues, some of whom have several years of teaching experience. Please don't get me wrong.
Collaborative teaching can work.
I'm sure many of you in this audience have engaged in some very successful collaborative teaching arrangements. But I'm also sure you recognize that, when it does work, it's because of a very special relationship you've forged with your general education colleague-a relationship that research shows is not easily established and maintained. My fear is that the current emphasis on collaboration leads teachers away from actual teaching. They are spending their time consulting with general education teachers rather than teaching. Or, at best, they are teaching, but the effects of their instruction are diminished because it's spread over large numbers of students, some of whom are not learning disabled.