Working together: School administrators supporting teachers of students with behavioral challenges

Special educators who teach students with significant or challenging behaviors may experience physical aggression, verbal aggression, the destruction of classroom or personal property, or the elopement of a student. Student behaviors such as these can lead to physical and mental exhaustion and stress in teachers. School leadership needs to know what special educators of students with significant behaviors report as supportive to decrease injury and burnout, to promote educator retention and ultimately student success. This study defines the types of supports provided by school principals that special education teachers in Oklahoma report to be helpful in these difficult situations. This quantitative survey research project used a pragmatic and non-experimental design to describe special education teachers’ perceived support by a principal with the reported desired support types. In previous studies by Littrell, Billingsley, and Cross (1994) the findings of special education teachers' perceived supports were similar to House’s 1981 social supports study, where teachers rated emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental supports as important. In this study, the sample was obtained by asking special education directors of Oklahoma public school districts to distribute the survey to teachers in their school district who teach students with challenging behavior. The survey inquired about specific challenging behaviors including elopement, physically aggressive behavior, property destruction, and verbally aggressive behavior. Teachers rated all areas of support as important, with emotional support identified as the most important form of support. Principals can help special education teachers experience greater confidence and skill by providing emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental support. With intentional and focused support, principals can influence the work of teachers of students with behavior challenges and be instrumental in supporting teachers through successful behavior interventions and increased academic achievement of students with behavioral challenges (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015)