Teachers' perceptions of benefits and barriers to school and community work-based learning experiences for students with severe disabilities

Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and barriers to school and community work-based learning experiences (WBLEs). High school special education teachers who had at least one student on their caseload with severe disabilities aged 14 or older completed an online questionnaire (N = 137). Exploratory factor analyses were used to describe how teachers conceptualize benefits and barriers to school and community WBLEs. In addition, inferential statistics were used to compare teachers’ perceptions of school and community WBLEs. Two types of benefits of WBLEs were identified: student skills and student outcomes. According to teachers, student outcomes were a greater benefit of community WBLEs than school WBLEs. Teachers who had experience with school WBLEs believed that the benefits of school WBLEs were greater than teachers who did not have experience with school WBLEs. There were also four types of barriers to WBLEs: resources, curriculum, stakeholder support, and supporting students. Of these barriers, teachers rated barriers to stakeholder support and supporting students significantly higher for community WBLEs than school WBLEs. Teachers who did not have experience with community WBLEs rated barriers to community WBLEs higher than teachers who did not have experience with community WBLES. Implications for how additional research can gain a better understanding of how students benefit from WBLEs and how to address barriers will be discussed. Additionally, implications for how teachers and schools can use data from this study to plan WBLEs and address barriers will be discussed.