An investigation of the mentorship process for educators who provide special education support services for hearing-impaired students in inclusive education

Professional development in teaching is a process that supports the progress of teachers' knowledge, skills, values and attitudes, and ensures the enhancement of effective learning and teaching environments. Planned and systematic professional development efforts are required for teachers to adapt rapidly and continuously evolve academic and technological novelties. In recent years the concept of Continuous Professional Development has become prominent and as a result various regulations have been implemented. One of these is a mentorship service for teachers and in this context it is believed that, in order to help them advance their theoretical and practical knowledge of teaching, the provision of mentorship services for special education teachers would improve the quality of educational practice. Inclusion practices have rapidly become widespread in Turkey, as in the rest of the world. It is anticipated that the results of this research will make a contribution to the mentorship practices provided to teachers who will be employed in special support education services. The purpose of this research is to examine the mentorship process concerning professional development of the educator who will be providing special education support services for hearing-impaired students learning in inclusive settings. To this end, the study focused on the practice of the mentorship process intended for educators providing special education support services, the contributions made by the mentorship process to the stakeholders, and the opinions of the stakeholders concerning the process. In order to examine the mentorship process with a systematic, reflective and cyclic perspective, the study used an action research design. For the research the participants included the researcher as the mentor, a resource room support teacher, two hearing-impaired students at fourth grade at an inclusion school, thesis advisor, members of the validity committee that comprised three academics that specialized in education for hearing-impaired individuals, and a general education classroom teacher. Research data were collected from the teaching practices while providing special education support services, interview records of the mentor and the teacher, and the minutes of the validity committee meeting. Furthermore, teaching plans, the researcher's diary, archive documents and minutes of the meetings were also utilized during the data collection process. The researcher and the validity committee systematically and critically analyzed data during and after the research process. The analysis of research data revealed that the process involved preparation, a pilot scheme phase, coordinated work and development phases. During the preparation phase, based on the body of literature, the qualifications of the hearing- impaired teacher in the inclusive settings were reviewed. In the subsequent pilot scheme phase, problems and requirements were identified with both the mentor and the teacher who will provide support education services. During the following phase, the practices of the mentor and the teacher were carried out simultaneously. During this, the last phase, it became evident that the mentor's ability to enrich the viewpoint in planning, to choose which feedback to focus on, and to provide feedback for strategies, had all improved. It was also observed that the teacher providing the support service improved in terms of planning, implementing and evaluating special education support services. Based on these findings, it can be suggested that the professional development processes of teachers who work in mainstream settings should be supported with a focus on individual requirements. Moreover, it can be emphasized that, having specified the qualifications of mentorship as a professional development approach, arrangements to extend mentorship practices are needed. Keywords: Professional development, mentorship, resource room teacher, hearing- impaired student, inclusion, action research.