The specificity of educational partnership between mainstream school teachers and support teachers in Romania

Establishing a structured educational partnership among specialists responsible for delivering integrative educational services to students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is increasingly essential. This initiative is concurrently becoming an integral component of the “case management” process for students with SEN integrated into mainstream educational settings, involving, as educational agents, mainly mainstream school teachers (MST) and support teachers (ST). This study seeks to reveal some features that characterise the educational partnership between mainstream school teachers and support teachers, particularly concerning the instruction of students with Special Educational Needs in mainstream school settings. It was performed on 59 mainstream school teachers and 56 support teachers. We used 2 questionnaires: “The Questionnaire of Educational Partnership Features in Special Education” and “The Questionnaire of Values of Educational Partnership”. Cooperation, the core of this educational partnership between mainstream school teachers and support teachers, is influenced by structural values. It has outcomes that affect teachers’ career values and set up the frame for using personal resources of mainstream school teachers and support teachers in planning, organising activities and tasks and assessing outcomes in alignment with the SEN students’ capabilities and in developing an effective style of educational interactions with students’ parents.