Abstract
Researchers have yet to examine the association of Holland personality profiles as it relates to special education teachers. In response to this need, we report the personality and vocational profiles (Holland Codes) of 134 special education teachers across a special education training program. The purpose of this paper is to summarize findings from the Self-Directed Search measure commonly used to assess the personality of participants in an occupation and suggest implications for participants’ choice in becoming a special education teacher. Our focus was on personality match with vocational choice to include participants’ demographic (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and geographical location) profile. Findings from the study reveal that while special educators’ overall personality profile is congruent with the Holland Codes associated with special education teachers, other features may explain participants’ choice to pursue a career as a special education teacher. Implications for teacher preparation programs and K-12 schools training are recommended based on the research findings.
Highlights
Attrition rates for special education teachers (SETs) in the United States (U.S.) contribute to a severe and persistent shortage of licensed teachers needed to deliver special education services to students with disabilities (SWDs)—negatively impacting Kindergarten-12th grade schools and outcomes for SWDs (Hagaman & Casey, 2017)
We investigated the differences in the codes based on the independent variables
We calculated the data and evaluated the internal consistency of the assessment by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha for each subscale, which were: Realistic (.91), Investigative (.93), Artistic (.91), Social (.88), Enterprising (.93), and Conventional (.92). These results indicated the items have relatively high internal consistency, especially because a reliability coefficient of .70 or higher is considered acceptable in social science research (Creswell, 2018)
Summary
Attrition rates for special education teachers (SETs) in the United States (U.S.) contribute to a severe and persistent shortage of licensed teachers needed to deliver special education services to students with disabilities (SWDs)—negatively impacting Kindergarten-12th grade schools and outcomes for SWDs (Hagaman & Casey, 2017). Additional factors may include teacher demographics (i.e., race, age, years of experience), poor working conditions, retirement, financial reasons, and student disengagement as reasons teachers leave the field or move to general education classrooms (Billingsley & Bettini, 2019; Conley & You, 2017; Scott et al, 2021). This line of research indicates complex reasons SETs may leave and highlights the need to better narrow what factors best predict SETs retention. While these suggestions have been disseminated, there is still a need to better understand why SETs choose to stay or leave the field
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