A Qualitative Study of Elementary Afterschool Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of Afterschool Programs on Students Receiving Special Education Services
Open AccessThe purpose of this study, "A Qualitative Study of Elementary Afterschool Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of Afterschool Programs on Students Receiving Special Education Services," was to assess elementary afterschool teachers' perceptions of the impact of afterschool programs on students receiving special education services. The primary research question of this study was, "How do elementary afterschool teachers perceive afterschool programs as impacting the academic, social, and emotional needs of students receiving special education services?"This research study was conducted at a large urban school district that offers school-based afterschool programs. This was a qualitative study that used van Manen's (1990) hermeneutical phenomenology (Creswell, 2007) that allowed the researcher to have more in-depth understanding about afterschool teachers' perceptions of the impact of afterschool programs on students receiving special education services. In conducting the study, the researcher recruited and purposefully selected the participants because certain criteria are central to the research problem. Ten elementary afterschool teachers who have at least three years of teaching experience in an elementary school and who currently teach four or more students receiving special education services or have taught four or more students receiving special education services in SY2010-2011 in the afterschool program participated in the study. The researcher conducted and recorded the semi-structured interviews, both initial and follow-up interviews; and transcribed the interviews. The researcher analyzed the data using member checking with participants and theoretical coding to identify emerging themes. Based on the data, it can be concluded that afterschool teachers perceived that the afterschool program positively impacts the academic, social, and emotional needs of students receiving special education services. Also, it can be concluded that afterschool teachers feel that students receiving special education services must have access to the afterschool programs and must be given the reasonable, appropriate accommodations; and afterschool teachers believe that specialized training is needed to appropriately meet the needs of students receiving special education services in the afterschool program. Finally, the recommendations were categorized according to different audiences.
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