The reasons they persist: exploring special education teacher identity

Special education teachers (SETs) who work with students with extensive support needs (ESN) face high-stakes contexts and demanding relational work that contribute to attrition. This qualitative study used interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) informed by the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) to explore how six SETs construct and sustain their professional identities. Data from three semi-structured interviews per participant were analyzed across cases. Findings revealed six interwoven themes: humor as advocacy and sustaining practice; paraeducator experience as authentic preparation; presuming competence and seeing the whole child; leadership as modeling, vulnerability, and fairness; rebellion as care and boundary-setting; and sustainability through self-care and boundaries. Together, these themes demonstrate how teachers navigate systemic barriers and persist by developing coherent, adaptive strategies rooted in relational care, advocacy, and resilience. The DSMRI framework facilitated analysis of identity as a dynamic system and highlighted advocacy and resistance as both outcomes and processes of coherence. Implications include refining teacher preparation to value paraeducator experience and promoting systemic commitments to presuming competence. These insights contribute to theory and practice by offering a fuller understanding of teacher persistence and pointing toward policies that sustain SETs through mentoring, inclusion, and structural recognition of the relational nature of their work. Such policies would benefit both SETs and the students they serve.