Examination of preschool teachers' job satisfaction and their views on working in special education kindergartens

This research was carried out to examine the job satisfaction of pre-school teachers working in special education kindergartens and their views on working in special education kindergartens. The study group of the quantitative dimension of the research consisted of 227 preschool teachers working in public special education kindergartens in Turkey in the 2022-2023 academic year. The study group of the qualitative dimension consisted of 10 pre-school teachers working in two special education kindergartens in Ankara. Eight-question demographic information form and "Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale" were used in the quantitative research part as data collection tools in the research. In the qualitative research part, a semi-structured interview form developed by taking expert opinions was used. Independent sample t-test and ANOVA analysis in the analysis of quantitative data; Content analysis method was also used in the analysis of qualitative data. According to the findings, it is seen that the external satisfaction of the preschool teachers working in the special education kindergarten is high, their internal satisfaction is moderate and their general satisfaction is above the average. When the relationship between the MID scale and their views on working in special education kindergartens is examined, it is seen that teachers who emphasize more on the positive aspects of their job satisfaction have higher job satisfaction and those who emphasize more on the negative aspects have lower job satisfaction. In the sub-problems, it is seen that the increase in the professional seniority and education level of the pre-school teachers affects their job satisfaction positively and the job satisfaction of the teachers in the 20-25 age range is higher. When the results of other sub-problems are examined, it is seen that the views of preschool teachers about special education kindergarten are mostly in the educational direction.