Occupational Hazards and Innovation: Teachers’ Responses to the Advisor Role

Abstract

When teachers take on roles that expand their formal responsibilities beyond conventional parameters, strain seems expectable. Today, for example, many “mainstream” teachers work in “inclusion” classrooms that blend special education students—with learning challenges including autism, learning disabilities, communication disorders, cognitive disabilities, and behavior disorders—together with other non-special education students for the majority of their school day. Research on this particular expanded teacher role finds teachers who feel underprepared for, and at times experiencing increased job stress due to, their responsibilities on top of the demands of “just” teaching (Forlin, 2001; Idol, 2006).