Art Educators’ Knowledge and Preparedness for Teaching Students with Physical, Visual, Severe, and Multiple Disabilities

Art teachers in preschool through high school (preK-12) classrooms provide instruction to diverse groups of students with a multiplicity of abilities. Thus, preparing art teachers to accommodate and modify for students who have disabilities is imperative (Nyman & Jenkins, 1999) Examination of the ways in which art teachers perceive their preparedness to work with students who have diverse needs can provide important information for strengthening school and university programs (Burton, 2004) Blandy (1994) stated that graduates of preservice art education programs should have (1) knowledge about students who have disabilities; (2) understanding of current federal and state laws; (3) understanding of propositions and principles of theory and applications; (4) knowledge of literature that addresses disabilities; (5) fieldwork practice where accommodations may be seen and made; (6) familiarity with communication systems; and (7) interactions, in their school and social lives, with those who have disabilitiesDespite Blandy's recommendations, the research on art teachers' preparation to teach students with disabilities is sparse We found no studies published in the last 19 years that empirically examined preparedness of art teachers to teach students with disabilities Guay (1994) published the first study regarding art teacher preparedness for addressing disabilities; she examined the responses and reflections of 212 randomly selected first-year members of the National Art Education Association Our study was designed to explore differences since 1994 in regard to art teachers working with students who have disabilities and, in particular, students who have physical, visual, severe, and multiple disabilities (PVSMD) We chose to focus on students who often require significant adaptations rather than students who have disabilities that affect only academic performance (e g , learning disabilities in reading) or social behaviors (e g , autism) Almost all teachers are required to take an introductory special education class These courses often focus on students with highincidence (i e , mild to moderate) disabilities and do not often have an emphasis on students with increased need for adaptations-including accommodations (which are changes that do not alter performance on standards) and modifications (which lower expectations of standardsbased performance) Although we believe art is important for all students, we selected this population of students out of concern that they have unique needs that can be difficult to address in large classroom settings-particularly in activities that rely heavily on visual and physical abilities, such as engaging in the creation of art As former teachers, we believe that these students require teachers to be proactive in creating art experiences that are meaningful by being fluent in various accommodations and modifications that allow them to participate fully in the preK-12 art classroomBeginning in the late 1980s and through the early 2000s, as the inclusion movement grew (Will, 1986), art educators disseminated ways to address preparing art teachers to work with students who have disabilities Clements and Clements (1990) provided concise information on how to teach students who have sensory, aural, orthopedic, neurological, and mild to severe disabilities Blandy (1994), Blandy, Pancsofar, and Mockensturm (1988), Guay (1993, 1994), Loesl (1999), Nyman and Jenkins (1999), and Keifer-Boyd and Kraft (2003) provided comprehensive information for preservice and art classroom teachers that sensitized teachers to the importance of inclusion and disability rights and suggested ways to accommodate and plan instruction Blandy et al (1988) provided guidelines for working with students who have severe and multiple disabilities, and recognized the importance of facilitating students to gain insight into their "community-at-large" (p 64) This increased emphasis on inclusion into classroom communities has required teachers to employ a variety of strategies and solutions to meet the needs of all learnersWithin the last 10 years, authors of art education journal articles and books have made strides to address instructional practices when working with students who have disabilities Many factors contribute to this growth of resources, including the art educators addressed above who called for an increase of information and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 that placed art as a core academic subject (Burnette & Lokerson, 2006) Expanding on these earlier resources, recent publications have continued to strengthen preservice teacher preparation For example, Reaching and Teaching Students with Special Needs (Gerber & Guay, 2006) provided a wealth of current information on recent laws, curriculum suggestions, adaptations, and modifications to the art education community This text has been used often in higher education classrooms and professional development workshops Wexler (2009) offered case "histories" and lesson plans that encourage readers to understand the importance of stressing strengths and developing curricula that build upon self-awareness and community (Derby, 2012, p 263) Wexler (2005, 2009) discussed the importance of arts involvement within a community when working with individuals who have disabilities as well as the need for schools to strengthen a sense of communityGiven the growing emphasis on art education for students with disabilities, we searched the literature for studies regarding art teacher preparedness, in particular to work with students who have physiological (i e , sensory and physical limitations), severe, and/or multiple disabilities Art and special education teachers indeed have collaborated and disseminated their research Bain and Hasio (2011) developed a topics course that provided authentic learning experiences with students who have disabilities They reported that art preservice teachers participating in classes addressing the needs of students with disabilities learned to be good listeners, to be more patient and flexible, and to adjust their teaching strategies A similar outcome for preservice teachers engaging in a fieldwork experience class resulted from a collaboration of a higher education faculty member and a high school intervention specialist (Pochedley & Dorff, 2008) The preservice teachers in this collaboration learned to adjust their teaching and discern key elements for students to learn Ponder and Kissinger (2009), reporting the results of eight collaborative efforts between special education teachers and art specialists, indicated that (1) the art specialists increased their understanding of how to structure and differentiate activities as well as develop more confidence, and (2) the special educators learned to strengthen their curricula with integration of the arts into their everyday classroom (p 43) The above studies have indicated that there is an interest in collaboration with higher education faculty and schools in order to increase preservice teachers' knowledge and experiences to meet the needs of students who have disabilities in art classroomsGuay (1994) addressed the potential impact of the increased attention in the literature on art teacher perceptions She included information on demographic background of participants, types of disabilities of students taught by participants, early field experience preparation and content, and participants' rating of 15 strategies Results indicated that recent graduates appeared to be more prepared, most particularly preservice teachers who had two or more courses covering special education However, results indicated that more than 70% of the art teachers "felt unprepared or only minimally pre- pared to teach in integrated classrooms" (p 54) According to Guay, this may have been due to lack of preparation in analyzing tasks and using cooperative grouping, collaboration, or peer assistanceAs of 2008, the number of students with disabilities who spend more than 80% of their time in the general education classroom is more than 50% (United States Department of Education, 2011) As students with significant disabilities are increasingly taught in general education settings, the need for preparation is stronger, and the need to examine what and how we are preparing art teachers has increased We agree with Guay (1994) that collaboration of art education faculty with special education faculty could strengthen understanding and serve as a model for school-level relationships As engaged faculty in special education and art education, we sought to develop a survey instrument to examine how preparation for art educators has improved or changed since Guay's study In particular, a goal has been to study the ways in which art teachers feel prepared for working with students who have PVSMD, i e , students whose disabilities require intensive or multiple adaptations to fully participate in art Specifically, the goal was to examine the resources that affect art educators' preparedness and the influences of knowledge (i e , art content knowledge and knowledge on teaching students with disabilities) on their uses of strategies, accommodations, modifications, and/or types of assistive technology used by art educators to meet the needs of students with PVSMD Data from the survey were split, and those data addressing detailed usage of adaptations, assistive technology, and special education supports have been reported elsewhere (Coleman, Cramer, Park, & Bell, in press) Specific research questions for this study were as follows:* What is the perceived level of knowledge and preparedness of art teachers to work with students who have PVSMD? …