Abstract

Statement of problem. Public law 94-142 was designed to guarantee the education of students with special education needs who had been denied access to public schools. However, teachers have not felt fully prepared to work with all students with special needs. Richardson & Anders define "the most enduring and prevalent dilemma faced by teachers today" as "the question of whether, when, and how the teacher should attend to the special needs of the unique child versus serving the group of students" . The question therefore becomes how best to fulfill the original intent of the law, how best to prepare classroom teachers so that teachers and students with learning disabilities can become full members of a classroom community, encouraging continued learning for teachers and students. Dewey suggests that shared interest creates community across diversity. Gadamer and Mead suggest that taking the role of another within community allows one to come to new understandings. ;Methods and procedures. Four teachers in a Midwestern, suburban school for students with learning disabilities took the role of co-learner alongside their sixth-grade students within shared-interest, mentor-led apprenticeship contexts. Pre- and post-, semi-structured interviews, teacher journals, in-situ ratings, and observation sheets were collected. Triangulation of teacher data was provided by researcher, mentor, administrator, and student data. Consonant with the theoretical framework of this study, a hermeneutic, interpretive approach is used in the analysis of the interview data, drawing on Bogdan & Biklen's criteria for qualitative research. ;Summary: Results and conclusion. Findings showed changes both in teacher understandings about and dialogic interactions with the students with learning disabilities. A transformation to a past sense of self as a learner was seen in teachers. Shared-interest context conditions provided opportunities for teachers to experience co-learning. Co-learning conditions optimized teachers' new understandings about their students, themselves, and about teaching. Teachers concluded they interacted with students on a more equal level, put trust into students as teachers, and gained a better understanding of academic research in education. Potential contributions were seen to research work where students' struggles to succeed can become more clearly understood