Preparing Nontraditional Adult Teacher Education Candidates to Become Special Education Teachers

Abstract

In North Carolina, where the state must hire 10,000 teachers every year just to fill existing classrooms, highly qualified special education teachers are included in the top three areas of greatest teacher shortage, behind math and science. Such needs, which include an increase in teachers from ethnic minorities, challenge teacher educators to seek innovative methods for recruitment and retention of pools of nontraditional teacher candidates (Artiles, Trent, & Palmer, 2004; Boe, Cook, Bobbitt, & Terhanian, 1998).