Transnational Inclusive Education Practice: A Constructivist Grounded Theory of Filipino Early Childhood Special Education Teachers’ Professional Identity, Cultural Adaptation, and Instructional Agency in Selected Colorado School Districts

Abstract

This qualitative constructivist grounded theory study explored how 10 Filipino early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers in selected Colorado locations constructed professional identity, navigated cultural and institutional adaptation, and exercised instructional agency in U.S. inclusive education settings. Semi-structured interviews were the sole data source. Interview transcripts were analyzed through initial, focused, and theoretical coding, constant comparative analysis, and analytic memoing. Four interconnected categories emerged: reconstructing professional identity through advocacy, collaboration, and specialized practice; negotiating cultural and institutional adaptation through learning, relational openness, and resilient practice; exercising instructional agency within structured and collaborative ECSE settings; and sustaining transnational inclusive practice through relational support and professional resilience. Participants integrated prior professional values and Philippine teaching experience with U.S. expectations for individualized instruction, IEP implementation, data use, family partnership, and multidisciplinary collaboration. The analysis generated the provisional Transnational Inclusive Teaching Adaptation Framework, which conceptualizes sustainable transnational inclusive practice as a recursive process involving prior professional resources, institutional negotiation, identity reconstruction, situated agency, relational support, professional learning, and resilience. The findings offer contextually grounded implications for induction, mentoring, professional development, leadership, and policy support for internationally trained ECSE teachers.