Module 5: Roles and Responsibilities—Inclusion and the Educational Team
Responsibility Confusion
There is overlap in some of the responsibilities and duties of team members. For example, both itinerant support teachers and case managers can assume case management responsibilities. This can lead to confusion regarding responsibilities, tasks being duplicated, or missed. The following table helps you to identify where confusion can happen.
| Issue | Description |
|---|---|
| Duplicating responsibilities | You are aware that the student you support needs assistance with something and you think, “I can do that for them.” This is a caring, responsive approach, and the goal of these courses is to have all members of the school team feel greater confidence in taking things on to improve the quality of school experience for students with complex needs. But before your start, check with others to ensure that there is not more than one of you working on the task. |
| Taking on others’ responsibilities | Enthusiasm is always welcome, but we need to remember that thought and consideration has gone into to determining “who is responsible for what,” so offer support when you can, but stick to your responsibilities. |
| Passing off responsibilities to others | Passing off individual responsibilities to another person is a risk of busy schools and classrooms that are rich with diversity. There is a lot to do and sometimes we slip into doing duties for others. However, it is always best practice and less confusing to stick to the responsibilities that are preassigned to your specific role. Role release, which is different from passing off responsibilities, is an acceptable practice. This is explained in the following section on collaboration. |