Taking the Road Less Traveled : Prospective Special Education Teachers’ Career Motivations

Abstract

This study investigated the career motivations of prospective special education
teachers. Descriptive-qualitative research design was utilized in this study in which purposive
sampling was used to select participants in order to investigate their career motivations.
Thematic analysis was done to analyze the data and the results were grouped into eight themes
namely, the need to help family members with special needs; the condition of the children in
the province; opportunities abroad and high salary; the love of teaching children; inspiration
from other teachers; fulfillment in teaching students with special needs; discovery of unique
skills; and influence from parents. The results reveal that the prospective special education
teachers have high levels of career motivation. The findings in this study can be utilized as
basis for further quantitative investigation.