Intercultural Examination of Deprivation and Prosociality in Special Education Teachers: A Comparison of USA and Turkey

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors are positive social behaviors that benefit others. Deprivation is an observable and provable measure of absence in one’s social living standards depending on the society or country to which they belong. The present study examines levels of and correlations between prosocial skills and deprivation in Teachers of Students with Visual Impairment student (TVIs). Environmental Deprivation Scale for Teachers was developed by the researchers with 751 teacher participants. As one of the quantitative research methods, this descriptive study was conducted using correlation and screening to examine the relationship between two or more variables and obtain clues about cause and effect. 68 TVIs in Turkey and 73 TVIs in the USA participated in our web-based scale. The participants were also asked an open-ended question about the reason(s) for choosing their profession. The answers were analyzed, and themes and sub-themes were created. The study's main conclusion is that the American TVIs have higher levels of prosocial skills and lower levels of deprivation. In addition, there is a positive and significant relationship between prosocial skills and deprivation. The reasons teachers choose their profession fell under four themes and eight sub-themes for the American TVIs and six themes and nine sub-themes for the Turkish ones. Several factors, such as the differences in the education systems of the two countries and the levels of development, may impact prosocial skills and deprivation levels.