A research article, written by Dr. Oguzhan Hazir (a former PhD student at the University of Reading’s Institute Education) in collaboration with Professor Richard Harris (Dr. Hazir’s former PhD supervisor) with Dr. Tim Williams, has just been published in the Cambridge Journal of Education.
The article, titled ‘The mentor-tutor partnership in Turkish special education initial teacher training: An exploration of collaboration and agency’, explores the challenges within the Turkish context of how university-based tutors and school-based mentors work together supporting trainee SEND teachers in four different training partnerships. Data from 26 semi-structured interviews were analysed, and a key issue noted was the dominant role played by university tutors. This was either because tutors ignored the role of mentors or mentors felt it was not their place to question the perceived expertise of the tutors.
The study suggests there needs to be a reconceptualization of the partnership model in this area of initial teacher education, where mentors are supported and encouraged to exert more agency in fulfilling their role in training new SEN teachers.
Following the successful competition of his PhD in 2019, Dr. Hazir has worked as an academic visitor with Professor Harris during the 2020-2021 academic year, working on research article from Dr. Hazir’s original thesis and on a new research project. Further papers are either out for review or being written.
The article is available free of charge as an Open Access article, and can be accessed here.
Dr. Hazir tweets at @oguzhanhazir1.
To learn more about Prof. Harris’s research interests, visit his profile page here. He tweets at @Dr_RJHarris.
