Exploring the feasibility of multidisciplinary collaboration in Israeli school inclusion teams: Structures, barriers, and the role of arts therapists

Abstract

As schools increasingly adopt holistic approaches to education, multidisciplinary teams have become key to supporting students with disabilities in general education settings. In Israel, the Special Education Law (SEL) enables students with disabilities to receive tailored services and be integrated into the regular education system. These services are provided by multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), composed of professionals from various disciplines who work together to develop and implement individualized education programs (IEPs) that outline the support and interventions for eligible students. Multidisciplinary collaboration involves coordinated teamwork among professionals from diverse fields, requiring clear communication, shared goals and mutual respect. Grounded theory research, based on semi-structured in-depth interviews, was used to examine the perceptions and attitudes of 36 members of multidisciplinary school teams, including arts therapists, working in general education schools in Israel. Five themes emerged from the data: team interaction as the core of collaborative work, implications for multidisciplinary collaboration, features that sustain and strengthen team collaboration, barriers and complexities to promoting and sustaining team collaboration, and the role of arts therapists in multidisciplinary teams. The findings shed new light on the feasibility of multidisciplinary collaboration in Israeli special education school teams that include arts therapists. They confirm previous studies and contribute to the growing literature on interdisciplinary practice in inclusive education.