The relationship between the professional competency and burnout levels of teachers working in of special education

This research aimed to determine the relationship between the professional competencies and professional burnout levels of teachers working in different fields in private education centers. The "Scanning" method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. In line with the purpose of the research, the relational scanning model, one of the scanning models, was used. The research was conducted with 169 special education teachers working in Tokat in the 2023-2024 academic year. The Special Education Vocational Competence Scale developed by Öğulmuş (2014) and the Maslach Burnout Scale, adapted into Turkish by İnce and Şahin (2015), were used to collect the data of the study. Kruskal-Wallis H Test result and Mann Whitney U test were applied to analyze the research data using the SPSS program. As a result of the research, the participants' field knowledge, professional ethics, leadership, communication and general professional competence levels were found to be very high. The level of professional development was determined to be high. Participants' emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment levels were found to be high. Gender, graduated program and participation in a special education certificate program do not have a significant effect on emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and depersonalization. However, the programs graduated and participation in a certificate program related to special education revealed differences in professional ethics, leadership and communication levels. Total service time and special education service time do not have a decisive impact on the areas evaluated. The type of institution where one worked showed differences in communication and general professional competence levels. The age of the participants did not affect their level of professional competence. There was no significant relationship between special education professional competence scale scores and Maslach burnout inventory scores. The research shows that the participants generally have a high level of professional competence and their burnout levels are also notable. However, it was determined that demographic factors and length of service did not affect these levels and no direct relationship was found between professional competence and burnout in special education.