Teacher Adaptability to Change in Special Education: Creativity and Commitment to the Institution

Abstract

The transition to inclusive education implies a global transformation of the school. Mexican teachers face the implementation of the paradigm of inclusion in special education. We set out to define new skills needed in special education teachers' profiles in the inclusion framework. In the survey presented to 39 Special Education graduates in Puebla who responded to our questionnaire, we related the variables of demand in their work to adapt to technological and organizational changes, commitment and satisfaction with the institution, and teaching competence in creative innovation. We processed the data with the open-source statistical software PSPP to test our data's reliability and relate the variables employing Pearson's correlation coefficient. In order to meet the job requirements of adapting to technological and organizational changes, special education tea-chers must enhance their competence of creative innovation (Pearson's R= .77); and feel commit-ment and satisfaction with the institution they work in (Pearson's R= .73). Such commitment to and satisfaction with the institution require collaborative work with the rest of the teaching staff and the institution's authorities. Conditions for teachers' identification with and commitment to the institution build up through a dialectic relationship between the institutions and employees.