ERIC Number: EJ1090931
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Oct
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2159-4341
EISSN: N/A
Insider Perspectives on Mentoring Teachers of Students with Complex Disabilities: A New Zealand Story
Jones, Phyllis; de Kock, Jill; Charles, Devs; Jourdan, Neil; Copeland, Sarah; Willis, Sheryl
Journal of International Special Needs Education, v18 n2 p41-50 Oct 2015
This article shares a school based inquiry project undertaken by staff in a special day school in the North Island of New Zealand supported by an external teacher educator/researcher from the United States. The inquiry project followed the Accessible Research Cycle (Jones, Whitehurst, & Egerton, 2012), which is a phased progression of questions that supports teacher-led inquiry in schools. The questions are: (1) What do I want to know and how will I apply it to my practice; (2) What has been said previously; (3) What are the possible ways to investigate what I want to know; (4) How am I going to involve people in my research and enable their informed consent; (5) How am I going to gather the information; (6) How am I going to make sense of the information gathered; (7) How am I going to share my discoveries; and (8) How do my discoveries relate to my practice? The project involved structured interviewing with nine mentors/mentees. The impetus for the project emerged through a discussion with teachers about a shared interest across the school. The project focussed on the mentoring program in the school that included experienced as well as novice teachers. This article contributes to understandings of mentoring, particularly for teachers of students with complex disabilities from the perspectives of mentees and mentors, gathered through structured interviews. It offers insights into mentors' and mentees' perspectives about essential knowledge, skills and dispositions involved in mentoring. In this article, the authors accept that students with complex disabilities are a group of learners who have significant issues in learning, communication, personal and social skills, and/or sensory and physical development (Westling, Fox & Carter, 2014) and will have these issues occurring at the same time with different levels of intensity. The mentoring project focuses upon the teachers of this group of learners. This article offers special educators' perspectives of an established professional process.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Mentors, Severe Disabilities, Faculty Development, Educational Practices, Inquiry, Information Utilization, Knowledge Management, Structured Interviews, Qualitative Research, Teacher Attitudes, Teaching Experience, Interpersonal Competence, Special Education Teachers
Division of International Special Education and Services, Council for Exceptional Children. Web site: http://www.jisne.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A