Motivational Factors in Choosing to Be a Special Education Teacher

Given the shortage of special education teachers (SET) and the increase in the number of students with disabilities served in public schools, it is vital that the field identify strategies to attract individuals to the field. Knowing the reasons why individuals choose to become SETs may inform policies and practices needed to attract them to the profession. Chapter One was a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed studies that included reasons why individuals chose to be a SET. Findings show that there are six reasons unique to SETs. Chapter Two was a multiple methods study. Participants included 77 SET and 116 GET (general education teach-ers) from four education preparation programs. Participants were administered an adapted ver-sion of the Factors Influencing Teachers-Choice scale (Watt & Richardson, 2007) and the Pro-fessional Engagement and Career Development Aspirations scale (Watt & Richardson, 2008) with an open-ended question. Quantitative analyses included independent sample t-tests and zero-order correlations to compare SETs and GETs. Deductive coding was used to analyze open-ended responses. Quantitative findings indicated that while both groups rate motivational factors, beliefs, and future plans in a similar relative order, SETs rate prior experiences, social influences, teacher morale, social status, expert career, and satisfaction significantly higher than GETs. Qualitative findings indicated that SETs and GETs describe reasons of social utility most frequently. A higher rate of SETs described prior experiences and social influence as rea-sons they chose to be a SET. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.