Navigating With Experience: Twice-Exceptional Educators Guiding and Teaching Twice-Exceptional Students

Scholars have devoted increased attention in recent years to students identified as twice-exceptional (2e), those who have a concurrent federally recognized disability while also identified as gifted. However, there has been little if any study of how the lived experiences of teachers who themselves are identified as 2e inform their practices with 2e learners in the classroom. In the current qualitative study, five educators who self-identified as twice-exceptional shared how their lived experience as a 2e learner informed their lesson planning, teaching practice, and their interactions with students and colleagues. Findings suggest these teachers drew upon their own experiences as a person with dual exceptionalities to design lessons focused on mastery learning and engage multiple learning modalities, to modify instructional practices for all learners in ways that addressed the needs of 2e learners without singling them out as different, and to create learning environments where all students thrive.