Special Education Teacher Retention and Attrition
- 1 May 2004
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in The Journal of Special Education
- Vol. 38 (1), 39-55
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00224669040380010401
Abstract
The lack of qualified special education teachers threatens the quality of education that students with disabilities receive. Attrition plays a part in the teacher shortage problem, and efforts to improve retention must be informed by an understanding of the factors that contribute to attrition. Specifically, the author provides a thematic analysis of studies investigating factors that contribute to special education teacher attrition and retention. She addresses four major themes: teacher characteristics and personal factors, teacher qualifications, work environments, and teachers' affective reactions to work. Following this thematic review, a critique of definitional, conceptual, and methodological approaches used to study special education attrition is provided, as are priorities for future research.Keywords
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