The relation between job satisfaction and the feeling of vocational burnout of the teachers at special education schools for handicapped : The Ankara province example

Special education teachership for handicapped is a field which requires exclusive knowledge and ability. Due to the expectations of handicapped individuals and their families that takes place at the centre of this profession, teachers bear tremendous responsibility. This big responsibility cause stress for teachers. Therefore researching the relationship between burn out feeling and job satisfaction of teachers who work with different handicapped groups in various educational environments is considered as an important case. All of the studies which contain the education and training of children who differentiate prominently from their peers in terms of their progress and their features can be defined as special education. Briefly burnout feeling is an internal reaction against the stress that an individual experiences in his or her job. Job satisfaction as well can be described as the pleasure that an individual takes from his or her profession. In the first section of this study, the place of special education in the Turkish Education System was embraced, history, principles and purposes of special education was narrated and information about teachership and schools of special education schools for handicapped was given. In the second section, burnout feeling was primarily elaborated and the models, the reasons, the indications and the conclusions of burn out feeling were explained in detail. Job satisfaction concept was also handled, job satisfaction theories were discoursed and examined in detail at the same section. In the third section of this study the implementation about 582 teachers who work in 92 special education schools for handicapped in Ankara province was included. According to the research findings, meaningful differences were seen in the level of burnout of special education teachers for handicapped according to their ages, school types, employment status etc. It was also determined that burnout level of teachers of special education schools for handicapped differs meaningfully in gender, working years, employment status, age and school types. Moreover the level of burnout and the level of job satisfaction was detected and commented. Key Words: Burnout Affair, Work Satisfaction, Private Education, Teacher Ship of Special Education for Handicapped, Teaching Profession