Marks, S.U., Schrader, C., & Levine, M. (1999). Paraeducator Experiences: Helping, Hovering, or Holding Their Own? Exceptional Children, 65(3), 315-328.
Twenty paraeducators employed by a "non-public" agency contracted by school districts for students (grades 1 through 8) with challenging behaviors including agrression and oppositional behavior in inclusive settings
Descriptive: Semi-structured interviews of all particicipants conducted by first author and four in-depth follow-up interviews to further probe activities of a typical school day and daily roles.
Authors found that paraeducators assumed responsibility for instruction in academic, social and behavioral skills, as well as curricular adaptations, perceiving that they assumed the "primary burden of success for the inclusion students (p.318)". Subthemes of paraeducator perceptions emerging from the data included a) sense of not wanting to be a "bother" to the teacher, b) need to provide daily curricular modifications, soemtimes "on-the-spot" with little or no support or interaction from teacher, c) sense of being asked to be the "expert" on the student and recipient of recommendations of range of professionals, d) sense of being solely responsible for inclusion of the student.
Limitations noted by authors: Generalizability, consideration that participants were employed by non-public contracted agency which provided the paraducator training and supervision, high level of paraeducator educational and experiential background, limited sample size, and only paraeducators were interviewed.
Summarized by: Susan Edelman - May 1999