Motivational Factors Toward Pursuing a Career in Special Education Essay

This lease investigated factors which motivated individuals to initially pursue careers in specific give lessonsing, factors which contributed toward their plans to remain or leave the empyrean, and their perceptions of school districts effective and inefficient recruitment and retention practices. The sample comprised of 15 individuals employed in domain schools throughout north Texas who initially pursued careers in extra fosterage. data were collected through the form of audio-recorded semi-structured telephone interrogates. Empathy towards students, family, and opportunities to fill job vacancies were factors that participants cited the near for initially pursuing careers in extra teaching method. Furthermore, most of the interviewees inform enjoyment within their jobs, but noted excessive demands and lack of administrative condense as contributing to job dis enjoyment. Motivational Factors toward Pursuing a occupational group in Special Education.Chronic shortag es in the palm of special raising continue to pose challenges for public schools crosswise the United States (Billingsley, Carlson, & Klein, 2004 Boe, 2006 Billingsley & McLeskey, 2004 Brownell, Hirsch, Seo, 2004 Singh & Billingsley, 1996 Strunk & Robinson, 2006 Thornton, Peltier, & Medina, 2007). The limited come of individuals entering and/or remaining in the field of special education has resulted in school districts inability to fill the essential teaching positions such shortages have been linked to difficulties in the recruitment and retention of qualified individuals (Olivarez & Arnold, 2006).Although difficulties with the recruitment of teachers, low retention, and high attrition rates are evident across all teaching professions, it is much more prevalent among special pedagogues. Specifically, teachers of students with delirious/behavioral disorders exhibit the bouffantst shortage, followed by those serving students with severe/profound disabilities, and breeding dis abilities (McLeskey, Tyler, & Flippin, 2004). Our national school districts are in a crisis. Specifically, districts are scrambling to see qualified special educators to fill the vacant teaching positions.According to squelch and Piotrowski (2006), a projected 611,550 positions in special education will consume to be filled by the year 2010. However, the inability to recruit the necessary offspring of eligible individuals to fill positions continues to be a major bother for school administrators. An infinite number of search studies have been conducted in an try to identify barriers which deter people from entering the field (Billingsley, 2004 Gersten, Keating, Yovanoff, & Harniss, 2001 McLeskey et al., 2004 Olivarez & Arnold, 2006 Thornton, Peltier, & Medina, 2007).Studies have set perceptions of low social status associated with being a special educator, poor working conditions, high rates of stress, excessive paperwork, and low salaries with the decreased number of indiv iduals entering the field of special education (Barmby, 2006 McLeskey et al. , 2004 Rice, Goeling, & Peters, 2005).A vast fare of research also exists regarding factors which have contributed to the decisions of individuals to leave the field of special education (Billingsley, Carlson, & Klein, 2004 Singh & Billingsley, 1996 Thornton, Peltier, & Medina, 2007) and consequently contribute to the shortage of and high attrition rates of special education teachers (Barmby, 2006 Fish & Stephens, in press McLeskey, Tyler, & Saunders, 2004). According to tout and Piotrowski (2006), 13. 2% of special education teachers leave their position each year.While sixsome percent of special educators leave the field of education altogether, 7. 2% exile to general education positions. Prevalent variables identified as contributors to the exodus from the field include occupational stress, burnout (Botwinik, 2007 Greiner & Smith, 2006), weak support by administrators, unreasonable caseloads, large c lass size, low salaries (Darling-Hammond, 2003), testing and accountability pressures (Tye & OBrien, 2002), and ineffective in-service programs (Kaufhold, Alverez, & Arnold, 2006 Plash & Piotrowski, 2006).A battleground conducted by Brownell, Smith, McNellis, and Lenk (1994) investigated the contextual variables related to teacher attrition. Findings indicated that those teachers who distinguishable to stay in the field of special education were more move to teaching students with disabilities, had a higher sense of efficacy, felt more watchful by their pre-service and initial teaching experiences, and exhibited more effective coping strategies than those who contumacious to leave the field.Two international studies were identified which focused on the prompt factors of individuals initially pursuing careers as general educators (Barmby, 2006 Watt & Richardson, 2007). Based upon a study conducted in England and Wales, Barmby identified intrinsic (e. g. , the activity of teachi ng children) and altruistic (e. g. , desire to help children succeed) reasons which contributed to the teachers decision to pursue careers within the field of education. mistakable findings (e. g., working with children, shape future of children, and make a social contribution) were reported by Watt and Richardson who investigated the motivational factors which influenced Australian individuals to initially pursue a career in general education. In addition to investigating special educators job satisfaction and decisions to remain in the field, controling an understanding of individuals motivations for entering the field of special education have implications which may assist in the increase recruitment and retention of special educators.Such findings would contribute to enhanced teacher educational planning, curriculum design and policy decisions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to obtain perceptions of special educators with regards to factors that contributed toward the ir (a) initial pursuit of special education careers, (b) job satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction levels and (c) decisions whether to remain on the special education career path. Participants were unless asked to provide recommendations that school districts could take to effectively recruit and retain special educators.Design of Study Qualitative methodology was utilized in this study in the form of audio-recorded semi-structured telephone interviews to obtain the perceptions of special educators. Qualitative research is appropriate in dealing with potentially multiple realities, mutually organization influences, and value patterns (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Interviews serve the purpose of obtaining here-and-now constructions of persons, events, activities, organizations, feelings, motivations, claims, concerns, and other entities (p. 268).According to Bogdan and Biklen (1998), semi-structured interviews encourage interviewees to nail upon ideas, which provide the researcher opportu nities to generate abstract ideas through descriptive material. Participants Respondents move in this study consisted of 15 educators employed in public school districts throughout the north Texas area. This purposive sample was comprised of 11 special education teachers, three diagnosticians and one former special education teacher soon serving as a high school principal at the time of the interviews.Four of the 11 special education teachers within this study were previously general education teachers. Data Collection and Analysis The interview questions conducted for this study focused on factors which contributed toward special educators initially pursuing careers in special education in addition to conditions that would contribute toward them remaining in or leaving the field. Interviewees were additionally asked to provide feedback pertaining to their school districts special educator recruitment and retention efforts. The following open-ended questions were asked to each of the 15 participants.