A comparison of special education teachers in terms of psychological well-being, job satisfaction and quality of school life

This research was carried out to examine and compare the psychological well-being levels, job satisfaction levels and school life quality levels of the special education teachers working in the official education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, in line with the disability types of the students in the class they work. The study group of the research consists of 185 female and 73 male special education teachers working in public schools in the 2022-2023 academic year, determined by criterion-based sampling method. Within the scope of the research, Demographic Information Form, Psychological Well-Being Scale, Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale, School Life Quality Scale were applied online to the participants. In this study, in which quantitative data were collected, the comparison type relational survey model was used. Spearman coefficient was used because the data did not provide a normal distribution. The data collected from the participants were analyzed with the Kruskal Wallis Test, Post Hoc Test, and Mann Whitney U Test. According to the results of the research, it was determined that there is a moderately significant positive relationship between psychological well-being, job satisfaction and school life quality. It was observed that the level of psychological well-being and job satisfaction did not differ according to the type of disability of the working class. It was determined that the level of school life quality was significantly higher in the teachers working in the visual and hearing impairment classes compared to the teachers working in the autism class. It was found that there was a low level of positive correlation between psychological well-being and school life quality levels and age. No relationship was found between gender, seniority, type of disability and dependent variables. In the light of the findings, future research and recommendations for practice are discussed.