Choosing Teaching as a Career: Examination of Motivational Sources of Special Education Teacher Candidates

The aim of this research is to examine the motivational sources of teacher candidates who prefer the special education department. In the research, firstly, the motivation resources that enable teacher candidates to continue higher education were examined. Then, the sources of motivation that are effective in choosing teaching as a career and in the last stage, the motivation sources of the process of choosing the special education department were examined. The research carried out within the framework of qualitative research methods was structured in the basic qualitative research design. The participants of the research are the students of the special education department of the faculty of education. Participants were included in the scope of the study in accordance with the homogeneous sampling techniques, which is one of the purposive sampling methods. In this context, ten teacher candidates who had graduated from any higher education institution before constituted the participants of the research. The interview form developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool in the research. Research datas were collected through focus group interview. Content analysis technique was adopted in the analysis of the data. According to the results of the research, the factors that motivate teacher candidates in the process of continuing higher education and choosing a faculty of education generally depend on external motivation sources. While explaining the factors that motivate them both in the process of continuing higher education and choosing teaching as a career, teachers candidates emphasized the element of "employment", which can be considered within the scope of extrinsic motivation. It has been concluded that in the preference of the special education department of the teacher candidates, the elements such as the sacredness of special education teaching, which can be considered within the scope of altruistic motivation, and the happiness of teaching something to children with special needs, come to the fore.