A Case Study: A Novice Teacher’s Mentoring Experiences the First Year and Beyond

Serving over 1.1 million students in more than 1,800 public schools, the New York City Department of Education is the largest school district in the nation. When individuals graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree in teacher education the New York City Department of Education assign a school-based mentor for one year. The case study examined how a novice special education teacher described his reflective experiences and progress, or lack thereof. The central research question was, “What were the differences, challenges, and successes between novice teachers’ first-year experiences and their third-year mentoring experiences?” Data collection included an individual interview. Data analysis was analyzing themes by manual coding. The findings were a lack of resources and exemplary administrative support. Still, often too late, lack of available materials, qualified mentor-teacher role, impractical standard planning time, meaningful observations, and good work ethics are qualities of mentors and initial dissatisfaction without a mentor. These results can inform school districts what happens when mentors are not assigned and develop improved mentoring programs for new special education teachers. A limitation of this study was one novice teacher was interviewed, and the findings were not generalized to other novice special education teachers. However, the implication was that new teachers, especially special education teachers, need mentors in the first year of teaching and beyond. Social change may include improved mentoring programs for school districts to ensure that novice special education teachers remain in the teaching profession.