Date of Award
6-19-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Mahauganee Bonds
Second Advisor
Jodi Elder
Committee Members
Karyn Christian
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of students and teachers and caused a need for social-emotional learning to be addressed upon re-entry to Kindergarten through 12th grade public schools. Students with social and emotional behavioral disorders have experienced dismal outcomes as they are one to two years behind their peers academically and more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, or placement in alternative learning programs. Students with disabilities showed a loss of progress both academically and behaviorally upon re-entry of school following the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem to be addressed in this study was what effects re-entering public schools from Kindergarten through 12th Grade had on inclusionary teaching of students with emotional and behavioral disorders and general education teachers. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study aimed to understand the lived experiences of general education teachers who taught students with emotional and behavioral disorders after the COVID-19 pandemic in the inclusionary classroom setting. This research study used a qualitative inquiry, including semi-structured interviews and questionaries with general education teachers who had taught students with emotional and behavioral disorders in the inclusionary classroom. The Cognitive Load Theory was used as the guiding framework for this study. The three barriers identified through this research study were (a) teacher lack of knowledge, (b) challenging behaviors, and (c) lack of support. The four effective strategies identified through this research study were (a) prior experience, (b) self-motivated learning, (c) positive support, and (d) student-based learning. This study also discovered that even though the participants stated that their memories were not affected regarding retaining and utilizing information learned through training or professional development, several participants acknowledged they had used systems such as Google Folders to keep information on hand to help them remember what they had learned to utilize with their students. Additional studies from other perspectives, such as special education teachers or administration, with shared similar experiences regarding teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders in the inclusionary classroom after a disruption in school services would be beneficial to providing better outcomes for this population of students.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Larrison, Angela, "Re-Entering Public Schools Kindergarten Through 12th Grade After the Pandemic: Perceptions of General Educators on Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Inclusionary Classrooms" (2026). Student Theses and Dissertations. 1161.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/1161
