Table 1 summarizes characteristics of the participants. All 17 were women ranging in
age from 25-51, the majority of whom were white, had earned a Master’s degree in special
education, and had been teaching a minimum of 3 years with an average of 12 years as a SET.
Collectively they had a caseload of 178 students described as being of a minority race, eligible
for free or reduced lunch, qualified for special education services in the category of LS or ES
(with the exception of 5 students qualifying for Life Skills), and mostly males in grades K-6.
3.1.4 Data Sources, Collection and Preparation
The primary source of data collection was from the two focus group discussions of 11 and 6
special education teachers respectively. The secondary source was 17 daily logs kept for one
week after each focus group session by each participant, with the third source of data being
occasional follow-up interviews conducted by phone and from occasional email messages
between the researcher and the participants whenever a need for clarification arose or further
information from a specific participant was elicited.
3.1.5 Procedures
In January 2006 a pilot focus group session was held at Duquesne University; participants
included three public school special education teachers and two faculty members who met for
1.5 hours to observe this primary researcher conduct a pilot focus group session. The IRB
approval letter arrived on March 1, 2006. During the week of March 17, 2006, introductory