Interview 1
The Special education chair stays aware of the current issues and policies about special education by getting alerts from the special education coordinator and frequently visiting the Mississippi department of education websites and accessing newsfeeds. The chair rarely attends board meetings despite often attending professional conferences. The major reasoning for attending such conferences is to get to understand better why some decisions are attained. Additionally, despite the chair being signed up with newsfeeds, he is not affiliated with any professional organization. Some of the benefits derived from professional organizations include getting an opportunity to collaborate and acquire new strategies and resources. The chair relays the current issues and policies to the school employees through sharing with them via phones, emails, or even one on one. However, the chair experiences some challenges in keeping all the employees’ update. In such a case, the policies may change over time. In case the special education policies are not followed, the chair has witnessed students retake tests, and at the same time, he has evidenced students proceed to the next grade without ESY and teachers non-renewed. As a chair, he advised future special needs teachers to ensure they read through IEPs thoroughly and learn to follow it precisely. Also, he would advise them to listen to and get to know your students and their guardians.
Interview 2
The special education chair gets updated with the current special education issues and policies through engaging in professional development sections, familiarizing with current articles, and getting current updates concerning special education from relevant sources. Additionally, the chair gets updates on special education areas by attending all professional conferences offered by the MS. Department of education. The chair has a professional affiliation with the North MS special education consortium. He benefits from it by getting updates and having access to possible resources on top of gaining more knowledge, which allows him to think appropriately. Once he acquires information about the current issues and policies, he relays them to the school employees through professional development sessions despite finding it challenging to find the time to share and thoroughly update them. However, the chair has not faced any ramifications. He would advise future special education teachers to take time to learn about their learners and always review their date to make rational decisions. Besides, they have to ensure they remain current and learn to communicate with the stakeholders.
The knowledge obtained from the interview is essential in my future professional practices in different ways. First of all, by conducting the interview, being in a position to identify some of the ways I would be able to utilize in professional practice to remain current with issues and policies surrounding my field. Besides, the information obtained from the interview provides me with a hint of what is expected of me. This includes some of the roles that I would need to play to be competent in my profession. Additionally, knowledge about the current issues provides an insight into some of the challenges that I am likely to face in my profession.
The special needs chairs in the interviews share similarities and express some differences in roles and responsibilities. Some of the similarities are that the two are responsible for ensuring the school employees are updated on current issues and policies surrounding special education. In such a case, the two play the intermediate role where they ensure information released from higher stakeholders in the education department reaches the school employees and other stakeholders. They have the responsibility of attending all necessary conferences and meetings on top of keeping in touch with updates from relevant sources in order to be able to learn about the current issues and policies for them to be knowledgeable in the field. Besides, they are responsible for ensuring they understand both their students and the learner’s guardians or parents. However, the two chairs differ in that the second chair in the second interview is responsible for participating in the professional organization outside the district. On the other hand, the chair only attends conferences and seminars.
From the two interviews, the interviewees revealed that the key to be a successful special needs teacher is not only knowing how to teach the learners but also engaging and collaborating with other stakeholders in the field. Through this, one is in a position to learn and uncover current issues and policies in the special needs education. Besides, as observed from the interview, the interviewees reveal the benefit of being able to have a new understanding of how to solve challenging issues that come along. Above, the interviewee provides a hint that one to be successful, he or she has to ensure a better understanding of the IEP thoroughly to be able to perform duties appropriately. Lastly, one has to understand the learner, who is the center point of reference for the whole process to be considered successful.