Special Ed teaches leadership skills useful to deans.(IN THEIR OWN WORDS)

At a meeting of the Teacher Education Division (TED) of the Council for Exceptional Children several years ago, we discovered that many of the women in our professional organizations and who work as assistant deans had been special education teachers, as we had.

So we started a fact-finding journey to discover whether something in special ed teacher preparation and classroom experiences affected the leadership style of women in deanship roles. Here are our methods:

1. We created a "Women in Leadership" strand at the annual TED meeting, which gave us the opportunity to network with more than 100 women professors and administrators in special ed over the past five years.

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2. We interviewed 23 women who had begun their careers as special educators and were currently or recently in various deanship roles. In the interviews, we asked the women deans to consider those skills they acquired or strengthened during their special education preparation and teaching that they considered helpful or hindering to their leadership.

Here are those skills most often noted as useful in the deanship, offered as tools and reminders to consider as we strive for excellence as women leaders.

Helpful skills and dispositions