Discrimination and social bias towards disabled STEM military-veteran secondary teachers: How do disabled veteran STEM secondary teachers make sense of their teaching career

Abstract

Special and disabled services are important issues for improving teaching practices and the provision of facilities for disabled people. Disabilities among military-veteran teaching staff are not widely discussed, despite the importance of the experiences that veteran STEM teachers can bring to the classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore why veteran STEM secondary teachers decide to switch their career to teaching, and how these stories influence the workforce shortage of teachers. Twenty-five American veteran STEM secondary teachers shared their stories and the decisions they had made. Among the motivations that they reported were a desire to impart scientific knowledge to young people, a sense that STEM subjects were at risk, the enthusiasm for ‘field and science knowledge beyond textbooks’, and the possibility for transferring field and military practices into the classrooms. The results of this study provide an understanding of how disabled veteran teachers see their difficulties, workforce management, and outline possible improvements that could be made to policies that affect disabled people in society.