INVESTIGATION OF OPINIONS OF TEACHERS OF THE HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN ABOUT SERVING AS A SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the opinions of teachers of the hearing-impaired children about serving as a special education teacher. The research was designed as a descriptive case study within the framework of qualitative research methods. Two criteria that the participants to be included in the study should have were determined as follows: graduating from universities’ hearing-impaired teaching programs and serving as a special education classroom teacher in schools affiliated to the MNE. The participants consist of 51 teachers meeting the specified criteria. Semi-structured interviews were held with 5 of the participants, and data were collected from 46 of them through an open-ended questionnaire. Given the pandemic period conditions we currently experience, the e-interviews were conducted using Zoom, while open-ended questionnaires were collected via Google Forms. Descriptive analysis technique was used in the analysis of the research data. The descriptive analysis process consists of four stages: creating a thematic framework, processing of data according to the thematic framework, identification of findings, and interpretation of findings. Study findings revealed that the fact that teachers serve out-of-field they graduated from led them to feel insufficient in terms of professional knowledge and competency. Besides, it was observed that they failed to provide sufficient benefit to the students, they had difficulties communicating with families, they failed to cooperate with the school administrators or other colleagues and could not find the necessary support. Article visualizations: