Throughout the United States, enrollment of special education students into general education classroom has steadily increased. Under the supervision of overwhelmed general education teachers, students who require additional support are not having their needs met. In many instances, the overall classroom environment has suffered leaving general education teachers tired and resentful.

After speaking with local insiders, we learned within the teaching community there is a subgroup of special education teachers whose voices had remained unheard. During general education teacher lesson planning, special education teachers were being undervalued and, as a result, felt disempowered. Though this was disheartening to hear, our team believed it was an incredible opportunity to uplift the expertise of special education teachers while building solidarity among all teachers, ultimately giving them a platform to enact policy reform that benefitted both special education students and general education teachers. Well-trained and equipped with modified learning techniques, like social workers, frontline special education teachers were an untapped resource within the teaching community. 

Taking cues from Paolo Friere’s popular education approach to empowerment and policy reform, our team developed a colearning workshop titled “Lessons on Learning.” “Lessons on Learning” uses various popular education techniques charged with facilitating dialogue through counter-narrative storytelling and shared strategies for success. Armed with collaborative expertise, we believe insights provided by special education teachers would not only develop innovative strategies for individualized teaching by general education teachers, but also begin the healing process between teachers who work with a variety of students. Ultimately, building a coalition supported by special education teachers and general education teachers would place pressure on policymakers to address inadequacies with regard to training, holding politicians accountable for the promise of a fair, equal, and inclusive education for all students.