The Pros And Cons Of Special Education Teachers

Special education teachers are a rare breed in the educational world. They are required to know content knowledge from a variety of areas as well as being experts in their field, intervention. The idea that these teachers leave the educational world and or the special education field more quickly than their general education counterparts has led me to research why. Throughout this review we will discover some reasons for their departure, preparation needed and possibly not given,
Research Question: Why are special education teachers retiring from teaching and/or leaving the field sooner than general education teachers and what can be done about it?
a. Barriers
There will be barriers in any job, but with this position specifically, a person will face many, which could lead to attrition. According to R. Payne, “Many teachers that leave the field of education have become disgusted with the amount of paperwork hat is required to do the job. The job design for special education teachers is very encumbersome and ambiguous. The problem exists when special educators must teach an individualized plan without appropriate time and resources” (2005).
b. “Burn out”
This specific area is something that I believe is the culmination of the barriers that special education teachers handle. …show more content…
These were taken from 1992 to 2001 (Billingsley, 2004). Some authors state that, “the most predominant reasons for leaving the field of special education is working conditions…role related factors…lack of support…student factors…and few recognitions/rewards” (Brister,2011). Being a special education teacher, going on my eighth year this has always struck me as odd at the high attrition rate of special education teachers. Even growing up, my father being a teacher, his friends who were intervention specialists either left the area to become a generalist or left the field of