External Mentoring Support for Early Career Special Education Teachers

The special education teaching profession has experienced longstanding problems with shortages of qualified teaching staff and with high turnover rates of these staff. A variety of issues are related to these problems, including the nature of the support that early career special education teachers receive. In this case study research, the use of external mentoring support to two early career special education teachers in their first year of teaching was examined. This mentoring support was provided by an experienced special educator who did not work at the teachers' schools. The results suggest that external forms of mentoring support may offer important advantages over traditional, site-based forms of support.