Rural schools and other traditionally hard-to-staff schools continue to struggle with the recruitment and retention of qualified special education teachers. Beginning special educators are two and one half times more likely to leave their positions than their general education counterparts. The study reported here extends the literature base on teacher retention by exploring factors that contribute to the professional growth and job satisfaction of a particular group of beginning special educators in a variety of settings, including rural, urban, and suburban districts, both elementary and secondary school level settings, and resource or more self-contained settings. The study's findings hold implications for individuals responsible for teacher development and the administration of school funds and resources.
This mixed methods study gathered information about the experiences of beginning special education teachers, their systems of support, and their intent to continue their careers in the field. Individual open-ended interviews were conducted with 8 first and second year special education teachers to obtain their perceptions of their first year of teaching. Participants also completed a 10-item Likert scale focusing on interactions in their work environments. Data revealed that beginning teachers appeared to be resourceful and resilient in advocating for their students and their programs and intend to remain connected to the field of education. Their major areas of frustration were related to the inclusion of students in general education classrooms and curriculum.
Teachers’ perceptions of their classroom practices were examined within the framework of a year-long mentorship experience in a K-12 public school district. A total of 43 mentors and 41 newly hired mentees completed an online survey developed by the authors that focused on teacher perceptions of classroom decisions and practices during one school year and their overall mentorship experiences. A 2 × 2 factorial ANOVA was conducted and showed significant differences. Mentors perceived the greatest benefit of mentoring to be the opportunity to reflect, whereas mentees found mentorship experiences beneficial in increasing their knowledge of classroom, school, and district assessment practices. Limitations of the study and implications for the use of mentoring supports to improve day-to-day teacher decisions and practice are presented.
In this article, the authors report findings from a self-report survey completed by 125 preservice elementary, secondary, and special education teachers. The purpose of the study was to identify aspects of university coursework and assigned field experiences that contribute to their ability to define, identify, and implement inclusion. Results indicated a lack of consistency across teacher preparation programs within one college and a disconnectness between knowledge of inclusion as presented through university coursework and students' real-world field experience observations of inclusion. Preservice special educators' perceived lack of confidence in their ability to implement inclusion in practice was also noted in the analysis of results. The article also addresses implications of the findings for teacher education programs.
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