Abstract

VALDENEGRO-FUENTES, Lidia  and  GONZALEZ-SANZANA, Alvaro. Motivational profiles for choosing special education teaching as a career. S. Afr. j. educ. [online]. 2024, vol.44, n.4, pp.1-11. ISSN 2076-3433.  https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v44n4a2417.

With the research reported on here we investigated the motivation of pre-service special education teachers to choose special education as major. The participants were 332 pre-service teachers from 10 universities in Chile. A latent profile analysis with 5 motivational factors of the factors influencing teaching (FIT)-choice scale was carried out to determine the motivational profiles of special education pre-service teachers. Findings show 3 profiles solution as the best model. The disenchanted profile shows low scores for all the motivational factors included in the study. A group of pre-service teachers displayed the highly engaged profile with very high motivational variables. The conventional profile had high scores in the social utility value, intrinsic value, and self-perceptions factors, although the performance in all of them was like that of the other profiles. Knowing the motivational profiles to choose a special education teaching programme can inform policies to attract and retain special education teachers in the field.

Keywords : FIT-choice scale; latent profile analysis; motivation; special education pre-service teachers.

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