The Lived Experiences of Special and General Education Teachers Using a Collaborative Teaching Model to Meet the Needs of Students with Learning Disabilities In Inclusive Classrooms: A Phenomenological Study

Inclusive education is an intricate reform and the way school systems are organized can commonly contribute to different challenges that they face in attempting to develop, maintain, and improve practices of inclusivity. Co-teaching, which is an instructional model of collaboration between educators, is deemed to be a beneficial approach to inclusive education. Its level of effectiveness, though, is not conclusive, as a variety of teaching styles, student requirements, instructional quality, and contrasting approaches can often make it difficult for rigorous standards to be met, which are vital to high-quality experimental research. The current phenomenological study explores the individual experiences of general and special education teachers at a middle school level, with an evaluation of co-teaching and its success in supporting students who present with learning disabilities. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the study’s data with eight teachers from a single school located in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results were analysed using thematic analysis through NVIVO software. The findings revealed three key themes: socio-emotional well-being and academic achievement, facilitating learning—the teacher’s evolving role, and the school administration’s support. Accordingly, the results indicate that the implementation of this programme achieved remarkable success with all different students, and particularly regarding individuals with learning disabilities, due to the positive experiences teachers had. This also creates an opportunity to integrate specialized knowledge and skills possessed by both general education teachers and special education teachers, which will help students benefit from learning in a more inclusive educational environment. The study concludes with recommendations and future research directions, providing insights to further enhance co-teaching practices and collaboration skills among teachers.