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 tothese problems, including the nature of the support that early careerspecial education teachers receive. In this case study research, the use ofexternal mentoring support to two early career special educationteachers in their first year of teaching was examined. This mentoringsupport was provided by an experienced special educator who did notwork at the teachers’ schools. The results suggest that external forms of mentoring support may offer important advantages over traditional, sitebased forms of support.