European Journal of Social Work

ISSN: 1369-1457 (Print) 1468-2664 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cesw20

Factors affecting job satisfaction of Turkish special

education professionals: predictors of turnover
Türkiye'de özel eğitim uzmanlarının iş doyumunu etkileyen faktörler: İşten
ayrılma işaretleri

Meziyet Ari & R. Firat Sipal

To cite this article: Meziyet Ari & R. Firat Sipal (2009) Factors affecting job satisfaction of Turkish
special education professionals: predictors of turnover, European Journal of Social Work, 12:4,
447-463, DOI: 10.1080/13691450902840648

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691450902840648

Published online: 23 Nov 2009.

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European Journal of Social Work
Vol. 12, No. 4, December 2009, 447
463

Factors affecting job satisfaction of Turkish special education

professionals: predictors of turnover

Türkiye’de özel eğitim uzmanlarının iş doyumunu etkileyen faktörler:

İşten ayrılma işaretleri
Meziyet Ari and R. Firat Sipal*

Department of Child Development, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

Research has documented higher turnover among professionals working with

children with special needs and has suggested a number of reasons for this
phenomenon. This study investigated factors affecting job satisfaction of Turkish
social professionals working in special education, in terms of work conditions and
their work experiences in Turkish special education institutions. Some 245
professionals participated in the study. A questionnaire developed by the authors
was administered. The main body of the questionnaire consists of two sections
concerning professional background, work status and a Likert-type scale on
factors affecting special education professionals’ job satisfaction. Results show the
factors affecting special education professionals’ job satisfaction to include lack of
printed material, lack of support, lack of audio-visual material, insufficient
assessment, pupil attitudes in the classroom, paperwork overload, lack of
professional development opportunities, conflicts with colleagues, secondary
duties and insufficient salary. Besides, maintenance of lack of administrative
support, paperwork overload, after school hours and insufficient salary affect the
job satisfaction of professionals and lead them to leave the job. The relationship
between work status and planning to leave the job remained insignificant
statistically.
Keywords: job satisfaction; turnover; special education; social professional; social
pedagogy

Alanyazında yapılan çalışmalar özel eğitim alanında çalışan uzmanların daha

yüksek oranda işi bıraktıklarını belirtmekte ve bu duruma da farklı sebepler
göstermektedirler. Bu çalışma özel eğitim alanında çalışan Türk uzmanların
meslek doyumlarını iş koşulları ve özel eğitim merkezlerindeki iş deneyimlerine
göre değerlendirmeyi amaçlamıştır. Çalışmaya 245 uzman katılmıştır. Yazarlar
tarafından geliştirilen bir ölçek ile veri toplanmıştır. Ölçek mesleki geçmiş ve iş
durumu ile uzmanların iş doyumun etkileyen faktörleri ölçen Likert tipi ölçekten
oluşmaktadır. Sonuçlara göre özel eğitim alanında çalışan uzmanların iş
doyumunu etkileyen faktörler; basılı materyal eksikliği, destek eksikliği, görsel-
işitsel materyal eksikliği, yetersiz değerlendirme, öğrenci tutumları, aşırı evrak işi,
mesleki gelişim fırsatlarının yetersizliği, iş arkadaşlarıyla çatışma, ikincil görevler
ve yetersiz ücret olarak belirlenmiştir. Bununla birlikte, yönetim desteğinin
eksikliği, aşırı evrak işi, okul sonrası çalışma zorunlulukları ve yetersiz maaş
faktörlerinin sürekliliği, uzmanların mesleği bırakmalarina yol açan faktörler

*Corresponding author. Email: fsipal@hacettepe.edu.tr

ISSN 1369-1457 print/ISSN 1468-2664 online

# 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13691450902840648
http://www.informaworld.com
448 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

olarak belirlenmiştir. İş durumu ve işi bırakma arasındaki ilişki ise istatistiksel
olarak anlamlı bulunmamıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: İş doyumu; işi bırakma; özel eğitim; sosyal uzman; sosyal
pedagoji

Even though the use of social pedagogy as a paradigm within child and family social
work has been largely neglected (Spratt et al. 2000), the term itself is a tentative
platform combining the professions serving children and their families with their
shared tasks (Otto and Lorenz 1998). The professionals who are the representatives
of social pedagogy face more difficulties than other social and community
professions working with families and children, as it is more demanding, particularly
in educational settings. Child populations have grown increasingly diverse and
professionals report substantial instructional challenges in serving all children well.
The day to-day implementation of ambitious national reform agendas rests squarely
on the shoulders of professionals as they endeavour to help children reach
development standards. Rapidly changing conditions make serving children hard
and stressful as well (Elfers et al. 2006). These changes have fuelled considerable
debate regarding the quality and stability of the professional workforce. Robust and
valid measures of quality are difficult to develop, and the issues surrounding social
professionals’ mobility and career decisions are no less difficult to disentangle (Van
Der Moef and Maes 2002).
It is well documented in the literature that serving children in educational settings
is one of the most stressful professions identified (Greenglass et al. 1997). Pithers
(1995) reported that almost one third of professionals report their jobs to be highly
stressful. Moreover, serving children has been associated with significant levels of
burnout leading to turnover (DeFrank and Stroup 1989). Working with children in
educational settings consists of stressors such as work overload, role ambiguity, role
pressures, inadequate resources, poor working conditions, lack of professional
support, lack of effective communication and child misbehaviour (Manthei et al.
1996, Pithers and Soden 1998). These stressors are associated with high levels of
burnout, low levels of job satisfaction, and inevitably lead to turnover (Griffith et al.
1999).
Research has documented higher turnover among special education profes-
sionals, and suggested a number of reasons for this phenomenon (McKnab 1995,
Singh and Billingsley 1996, Boe et al. 1997, Brownell et al. 1997). As one example,
Boe et al. (1997) conducted a study with 4812 special education professionals. The
results indicated that the attrition rate of 20% for special education professionals
was higher than for general education professionals (attrition rate of 13%). Of the
professionals who left education, 12% of the special education professionals, versus
7% of the general education professionals, transferred to a different school. Also,
more special education professionals (8%) than general educators (6%) left public
school service altogether. With these data on turnover and burnout in special
education, one may well inquire as to the reasons for the higher attrition rates
among special professionals. A similar study by Brownell et al. (1997) addressed the
turnover issue in a study using 93 professionals who quit their special education
service positions. The results of the study indicated that the majority of special
education professionals who left the field took positions in other areas of education.
 European Journal of Social Work 449

Another study conducted by Hakanen et al. (2006) showed lack of resources in an

occupational environment led Finnish professionals to burnout and to a high staff
turnover. Further, numerous studies using a variety of rigorous designs have
delineated specific factors that may lead to turnover. These factors seem to include
increasing paperwork loads, stress associated with the job requirements, a lack of
planning time, lack of support from administrators, lack of proper staff develop-
ment training, as well as the type of disabilities professionals deal with in the
educational settings. While the reasons for turnover vary somewhat from study to
study, there were a number of general themes that emerged, including job
satisfaction.
Job satisfaction is defined as: ‘a positive emotional state resulting from the
appraisal of one’s job situation and is linked to the characteristics and demands of
one’s work’ (Dressel 1982, Butler 1990, Arches 1991). As explained by Blandford
(2000), work-related satisfaction can be maintained by helping people, achieving
change and improvement, and by promoting children’s growth which has important
implications for professionals’ behaviours at work, for their desire to continue at
work and for their involvement in the job. According to Maslach (1982) and
Dinham and Scott (2000), the following are also considerable predictors of burnout
and job satisfaction: the level of interactions with children and colleagues,
professional knowledge and challenges, opportunities for access to new information
technology and Internet opportunities for INSET courses on development and
working conditions, including salary and opportunities for advancement, school
structure, administration, size of classrooms, variability of resources, educational
policies and procedures, and job security. Also associated with the professional’s
work environment are a balanced workload, relations with co-workers, personal
factors, salary and benefits and professionalism, and professionals’ cultural back-
ground which may affect their job satisfaction (Crane and Iwanicki 1986, Arches
1991, Sari 2000). Moreover, in Dressel’s view (1982 cited Blandford 2000), job
dissatisfaction and burnout are caused by inadequate work conditions; if profes-
sionals are overloaded, with unsatisfactory working conditions, they may feel that
they lack power, are isolated from peers and society and denied collegial support.
Similarly, Cunningham (1983), in a review of burnout and job satisfaction,
described the importance of quality of working life programmes as a mean of
reducing or eliminating professionals’ burnout and enhancing job satisfaction. Hart
(1994) examined positive and negative experiences of professionals and found that
psychological distress and low morale contributed equally to the overall quality of
their working life.
The link between job dissatisfaction and the propensity to leave is well
established (Shreeve et al. 1988, Singh and Billingsley 1996, Gersten et al. 2001).
Moreover, such a link has particularly been observed within special education
(Eichinger 2000). In a study of 96 professionals of children with emotional
disorders, George et al. (1995) found that more than 36% of the professionals
reported that they planned to leave the field within one year. Similarly, a survey of
402 professionals of children with behavioural disorders found that nearly half of
them had considered taking a job in general education during the previous few
years (McManus and Kauffman 1991). Miller et al. (1999) conducted a study to
determine factors that predict professionals staying in, leaving and transferring from
the special education field. The results indicated that 57% of the professionals
450 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

remained in place, 20% transferred, and 21% left the field. Results from both groups
of professionals documented a poor working climate in special education, a lack of
support from administrators, poor job preparation, large caseloads and low salary
as factors that contributed to stress and attrition. Miller et al. (1999) reported that
special education professionals who left the profession were significantly higher in
perceived stress than those who stayed in the field. Weiskopf (1980) cited several
stressors specifically among professionals serving exceptional children. These
included the heavy workload and the pressure to complete tasks in a timely
manner. Weiskopf further observed that special education professionals commonly
perceived a lack of success on their part due to the child’s actual problems or the
professionals simply having unrealistic goals.
The picture drawn for Turkish professionals presents a more pessimistic case.
Even though studies on job satisfaction, burnout and turnover in special education
professionals in Turkey show similar results to the international literature, such
similarities are not only related to the profession itself but are also due to the
frequent changes in the legislation for individuals with special needs (Başbakanlık
Özürlüler İdaresi 2005). Professionals working in special education in Turkey have to
deal with numerous difficulties in their work field such as getting familiar with the
new legislation, revising their records and reports, planning and conducting new
programmes for the children and families, and adapting institutional files to new
legislation (Başbakanlık Özürlüler İdaresi 2005). Those efforts bring more workload
as well as stress for the professionals.
Additionally, according to Eripek (2001) and Ataman (2001), major sources of
stress in Turkish special school professionals are workload, low salary, lack of self-
esteem, lack of in-service training (INSET) opportunities, lack of access to new
information and knowledge about special education, and time pressure, which are
perceived as the most stressful aspects of the work. As reported in Akcamete (2001),
the emotional, mental and physical reactions of social professionals, in addition to
their work pressure, contribute to stress. Girgin and Baysal (2005) report that a social
perspective towards serving children and a lack of administrative support result in
high levels of burnout, which leads to staff turnover. Further, Sari (2000) has pointed
out that poor working conditions, staff relationships, unsatisfactory management
and administration, feelings of low status, relationships with children’s parents and
pressure from the administration, together with pressure from business people, local
administrators and criticism from the wider community, also affect burnout and job
satisfaction negatively.
Drawing on the findings of the work discussed briefly above, this study
investigated factors affecting the job satisfaction of Turkish special education
professionals in terms of work conditions and their work experiences in Turkish
special education institutions. Findings are also considered as predictors of turnover
and discussed in the light of the literature.

Method
Participants
Participants of the present study were social professionals from special education
institutions serving around the metropolitan area of Ankara, the capital city of
 European Journal of Social Work 451

Turkey. Sixty special education institutions serving different types of children with
disabilities were contacted for collaboration, 43 of which seemed willing to
participate. Thus a total of 245 professionals, 39 male and 206 female, participated
in the study. Of the institutions which agreed to participate, 36 were institutions
serving children who are mentally or physically disabled and seven were serving
children who are deaf or hard of hearing. All participants were full-time certified
social professionals from four different majors: child development, psychology,
special education and physiotherapy. The participants were 86 child development
specialists, 30 psychologists, 48 special education teachers and 81 physiotherapists;
83.4% of the participants were women and 16.6% were men. Even though
participation was entirely voluntary, all the teachers agreed to participate. Ethical
approval for the study was given by the Turkish Ministry of Education, Department
of Special Education.

Data collection
A questionnaire developed by the authors was administered to the professionals. The
questionnaire began with a cover sheet introducing the research team. Confidenti-
ality and the voluntary nature of the participation were explained. The procedure for
completing and returning the questionnaires was then described.
The main body of the questionnaire consisted of two sections. The first section
concerned professional background and work status, with questions related to
monthly salary, years of total work experience, years in current position, number of
previous positions and whether the respondent had ever considering leaving the job
due to a low level of job satisfaction. Section two was a Likert-type scale with 28
questions on factors affecting special education professionals’ job satisfaction.
Professionals were asked to rate how the factors listed in the questionnaire affected
their job satisfaction on a five-point scale labelled as ‘does not affect’, ‘affects a
little’, ‘no idea’, ‘moderately affects’, ‘highly affects’. Some of the items listed in the
scale were about classroom conditions, lack of administrative support, lack of
materials, lack of professional development opportunities, paperwork overload,
insufficient salary, certification requirements and conflicts with colleagues. The
questionnaire has reported a very high reliability, estimated by Cronbach’s alpha
0.94.

Analysis of data
The data collected for this study were analysed by use of Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS). Chi-square was used to analyse the factors affecting the
special school professionals’ job satisfaction. Besides, descriptive statistics are also
considered for discussion to clarify whether factors affecting job satisfaction of
special education professionals differ in terms of their majors. In addition, factors
affecting professionals’ turnover are analysed and results are shown. Finally, factors
affecting professionals’ job satisfaction which lead them to consider leaving the job
in terms of total years of work experience, years in current position, monthly salary
and number of previous positions are also analysed by Pearson Chi-square.
452 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

Results
Factors affecting special education professionals’ job satisfaction
The factors which special education professionals who participated in the study
reported as ‘moderately affects’ and ‘highly affects’ their job satisfaction are analysed
and results are shown in Table 1.
Chi-squared analysis of job satisfaction factors presents 10 out of 28 items that
affect special education professionals’ job satisfaction ( pB0.05). These factors are:
lack of printed material, lack of support, lack of audio-visual material, insufficient
assessment, child attitudes in the educational setting, paperwork overload, lack of
professional development opportunities, conflicts with colleagues, secondary duties
and insufficient salary. The 18 items left also have effects on the job satisfaction of
professionals, however these remained insignificant statistically ( p B0.05).
Descriptive statistics in Table 2 present the percentages of child development
professionals’ ratings on the factors affecting their job satisfaction. The distribution
of the factors is also seen in Figure 1.
Regarding the results in Table 2, child development specialists are more likely to
be negatively affected by child attitudes in the educational settings (40.3% and 50%),
lack of audio-visual material (37.7% and 44.9%) and lack of professional develop-
ment (35.3% and 44.1%).
The ratings of psychologists working with children with special needs are shown
in Table 3. Contrary to child development specialists, psychologists seem to be less
vulnerable, as their ratings have a lower trend (Figure 2).
Psychologists are most likely to be negatively affected by lack of printed material
(26.7% and 26.7%) and lack of administrative support (30% and 23.3%).
Special education teachers’ ratings are presented in Table 4. Within the 10 items
significantly affecting special education professionals’ job satisfaction, special
education teachers rated lack of printed material on the top of the list (36.2% and
21.3%) followed by lack of administrative support (42.6% and 19.1%) and paperwork
overload (15.1% and 14.3%). Figure 3 also shows the distribution of the ratios of the
items rated by special education teachers.

Table 1. Analysis of the factors affecting job satisfaction of professionals working with
children with special needs (df 5).

Item Phi Value X2

Lack of printed material 0.247 11.67 28.51*

Lack of administrative support 0.248 13.06 23.98*
Lack of audio-visual material 0.254 12.54 29.60*
Insufficient assessment 0.238 13.92 26.77*
Child attitudes in the classroom 0.255 12.47 22.05*
Paperwork overload 0.231 12.80 24.21*
Lack of professional development opportunities 0.219 11.72 25.24*
Conflicts with colleagues 0.244 14.03 28.13*
Secondary duties 0.237 12.66 27.15*
Insufficient salary 0.256 14.27 26.67*
*Significant difference (chi squared), pB0.05.
 European Journal of Social Work 453

Table 2. Factors affecting job satisfaction of child development specialists working with
children with special needs.

Child development specialist

Item Affects (%) Highly affects (%)

Lack of printed material 36.9 43.5

Lack of administrative support 33.3 41.8
Lack of audio-visual material 37.7 44.9
Insufficient assessment 38.6 54
Pupil attitudes in the classroom 40.3 50
Paperwork overload 45.3 39.7
Lack of professional development opportunities 35.3 44.1
Conflicts with colleagues 38 40.9
Secondary duties 37.3 38.5
Insufficient salary 40.7 35.9

Physiotherapists’ ratings are shown in Table 5. Within the specialists from four
different majors, physiotherapists gave the highest ratings to the 10 items considered
in this study. They are most affected by lack of administrative support (40.7% and
37%) followed by lack of printed material (35% and 37.5%) and lack of audio-visual
material (33.8% and 35.9%). Figure 4 also shows the distribution of the ratios of the
items rated by physiotherapists.

100
90 affects
80 highly affects
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Figure 1. Factors affecting job satisfaction of child development specialists working with
children with special needs.
454 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

Table 3. Factors affecting job satisfaction of psychologists working with children with special
needs.

Psychologist

Item Affects (%) Highly affects (%)

Lack of printed material 26.7 26.7

Lack of administrative support 30 23.3
Lack of audio-visual material 9.1 5.1
Insufficient assessment 4.3 14
Pupil attitudes in the classroom 6.5 11.8
Paperwork overload 5.8 11.1
Lack of professional development opportunities 10.8 11.9
Conflicts with colleagues 7.6 15.9
Secondary duties 9 15.4
Insufficient salary 8.1 10.3

Factors leading special education specialists to leave the job

Table 6 shows the job satisfaction factors which lead special education professionals
to leave the job due to maintenance of those factors.
Within 28 items of job satisfaction, only four items showed statistically significant
results (chi-squared analysis, p B0.05). According to the results, maintenance of lack

100
90 affects
80 highly affects
70
percentage

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50
40
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Figure 2. Factors affecting job satisfaction of psychologists working with children with
special needs.
 European Journal of Social Work 455

Table 4. Factors affecting job satisfaction of special education teachers working with children
with special needs.

Special education teacher

Item Affects (%) Highly affects (%)

Lack of printed material 36.2 21.3

Lack of administrative support 42.6 19.1
Lack of audio-visual material 19.5 14.1
Insufficient assessment 15.7 10
Pupil attitudes in the classroom 11.7 8.8
Paperwork overload 15.1 14.3
Lack of professional development opportunities 13.7 15.3
Conflicts with colleagues 13.9 11.4
Secondary duties 9 11.5
Insufficient salary 22.1 11.5

of administrative support, paperwork overload, after hours working and insufficient

salary affect the job satisfaction of professionals and lead them to leave the job.
Within the 245 participants’ responses on factors that lead professionals to leave the
job, 68.9% (36.8% ‘moderately affects’; 32.1% ‘highly affects’) report a lack of
administrative support; 61.4% (35.6% ‘moderately affects’; 25.8% ‘highly affects’)
report paperwork overload; 52.8% (31% ‘moderately affects’; 21.8% ‘highly affects’)

100
90 affects
80 highly affects
70
percentage

60
50
40
30
20
10
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Figure 3. Factors affecting job satisfaction of special education teachers working with
children with special needs.
456 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

Table 5. Factors affecting job satisfaction of physiotherapists working with children with
special needs.

Physiotherapist

Item Affects (%) Highly affects (%)

Lack of printed material 35 37.5

Lack of administrative support 40.7 37
Lack of audio-visual material 33.8 35.9
Insufficient assessment 41.4 22
Pupil attitudes in the classroom 41.6 29.4
Paperwork overload 33.7 34.9
Lack of professional development opportunities 40.2 28.8
Conflicts with colleagues 40.5 31.8
Secondary duties 44.8 34.6
Insufficient salary 29.1 42.3

report after hours working; and 68.2% (35.2% ‘moderately affects’, 33% ‘highly
affects’) report insufficient salary. Professionals seem to depend on administrative
support with a total of 68.9% rating a lack of support as a factor that would lead
them to consider leaving the job. As expected, following administrative support,

100
90 affects

80 highly affects

70
percentage

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
ry
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items
la

Figure 4. Factors effecting job satisfaction of physiotherapists working with children with
special needs.
 European Journal of Social Work 457

Table 6. Job satisfaction factors leading special education professionals to leave the job
(df5).

Item Phi Value X2

Lack of administrative support 0.235 12.99 0.023*

Paperwork overload 0.236 13.07 0.023*
After school hours 0.222 11.54 0.042*
Insufficient salary 0.251 15.02 0.010*
*Significant difference (chi squared), pB0.05.

monthly salary with a 68.2% rating is a strong factor affecting professionals’

turnover.

Work status and considering leaving the job

Table 7 presents the chi-squared analysis of work status and professionals’ future
plans to leave the job due to work status.
According to data presented in Table 7, the relationship between work status and
planning to leave the job remained insignificant statistically (pB0.05). It can be
argued that work status does not lead to turnover, at least for this study. In an
attempt to better understand the effects of work status on turnover, work status and
job satisfaction factor items are cross-tabled individually and the results are analysed.
Moreover, Pearson product
moment correlation coefficients were also calculated for
both work status and job satisfaction items. According to the data provided, total
years of work experience and years in current position have no statistically significant
relationship (pB0.05). However, monthly salary and the number of previous
positions show a significant relationship in terms of job satisfaction and planning
to leave the job.

Discussion
This study was an attempt to clarify the factors that affect the job satisfaction of
Turkish social professionals working in the special education field. Therefore, the
researchers compared the effects of monthly income, total work experience, years in
current position and number of previous positions on job satisfaction. Moreover,
results of a scale developed by the authors were compared to professional
background factors.
According to the results indicated, professionals reported low levels of job
satisfaction related to lack of material, lack of support, work overload such as
paperwork and secondary duties. These results are in agreement with those of
Brouwers and Tomic (2000), Brunetti (2001) and Dalton (1991) who reported that
professionals serving children in educational settings had low levels of job
satisfaction. It can be deduced from those results that burnout among professionals
is a normal phenomenon in the teaching profession across different areas of
educational specialisation.
458 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

Table 7. Work status factors leading special education specialists to leave the job.

Item Work status X2

Duration %

Total years of work experience 1 year 26.4 5.16

2 years 32.1
3 years 13.2
4 years 11.3
5 years and more 17
Total 100

Income %

Monthly salary 750
1000 YTL 57.7 0.77

1001
1250 YTL 15.4
1251
1500 YTL 17.3
1501
1750 YTL 3.8
1751 YTL and more 5.8
Total 100

Duration %

Years in current position 1 year 57.4 1.92

2 years 24.5
3 years 11.3
4 years 5.7
5 years and more 3.8
Total 100

Number %

Number of previous positions 1 39.6 6.93

2 24.5
3 18.9
4 5.7
5 and more 11.3
Total 100
* Significant difference (chi squared), pB0.05.

Authors maintained that overload such as paperwork and secondary duties affect
professionals’ job satisfaction. This may contribute, then, to the professionals’ lack of
personal motivation leading to job dissatisfaction, which may also arise from
organisational factors, particularly a perceived lack of fairness. According to Sari
(2002), Turkish professionals serving in special institutions had many complaints
about the promotion policy, which relies heavily on inspection reports. Social
professionals in special institutions believe that some inspectors do not have enough
knowledge about professional methods applicable to those children needing special
education strategies. As explained in Dean (1996), if inspectors and advisers have
insufficient knowledge regarding interventions with children with developmental
disability, they may not be in a position to evaluate and assess accurately the
 European Journal of Social Work 459

professionals’ work in schools, with a consequent effect on professionals’ job

satisfaction and potential burnout. According to Hallahan and Kauffman (1997),
contextual factors such as promotion can also affect professionals’ achievement and
responsibility, and their job satisfaction. In addition, Dinham and Scott (2000) have
reported the following factors as having a significant impact on job satisfaction:
salary and job security, working conditions and facilities, administration and
management, child enthusiasm, personal life style and time flexibility in terms of
working hours, and secretarial and technical support. In Ure’s view (2001), such
job-related factors do affect professionals’ satisfaction negatively, particularly in
relation to the difficulty in gaining promotion and the strict bureaucratic aspects of
Turkish special institutions. Kircaali-Iftar (2001) has maintained that they also have
a lack of technical and secretarial backup, and lack access to updated publications or
information concerning special education because of low salaries compared to other
government employees.
Findings in the present study highlight that a lack of administrative support
highly affects Turkish special education professionals’ job satisfaction. Ure (2001)
also discusses major sources of stress on Turkish special school professionals that
may arise from a general lack of guidance in their work and a sense of isolation
within their profession. Further, Eripek (2001) and Kircaali-Iftar (2001) reported
that special school professionals in Turkey felt under pressure from heavy workloads
accompanied by inadequate supports from both the governmental and non-
governmental services which are limited in their response to social professionals
and parents of children with special needs. Such professionals had high levels of
emotional exhaustion which led ultimately to job dissatisfaction. Reflected here are
the views of Eripek (2001), Kircaali-Iftar (2001) and Sari (2002), who has reported
that workload and time pressures were perceived to be the most stressful aspects of
the job for all special institution professionals in Turkey.
Factors leading to high turnover of Turkish special education professionals are
found in this study to be lack of administrative support, paperwork overload, after
school hours and low salary. It is interesting that, within 28 factors, maintenance of
only four factors led to turnover. This result indicates that specialists working in
special education institutions somehow remain in their positions. It is possible,
however, for Turkish professionals in special institutions to gain satisfaction from
their ‘core work’ while being at the same time dissatisfied with their working
conditions. According to Mittler (1990), increased job satisfaction of professionals in
special institutions demands an authentic productive partnership, based upon mutual
respect and understanding in order to move special education forward, upward and
outward. Results of related studies are the assumption that many professionals who
suffer burnout may want to quit but for various reasons they remain in their
positions (Cooley and Yovanoff 1996). Certainly, the decision to change jobs is
difficult and complex (Seyfarth and Bost 1986). Minimally, the decision to leave can
be constrained by the availability of acceptable alternative employment and
geographic immobility. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that many social
professionals will accept the consequences of burnout and remain in position. Two
studies provide information as to the dimensions of this potential problem. For
instance, Jackson et al. (1986) provided data that support the potential role of
burnout in professionals’ decision to leave the field. They report that burnout
(Maslach and Jackson 1981, 1986) measured at T2 was significantly related to job
460 M. Ari and R.F. Sipal

preference, considerations of quitting, pursuit of a new career through additional

training and leaving the job. Respondents with the highest burnout scores at T1 were
more inclined to prefer a change in occupation. Importantly, they report that only
39% of the 228 professionals who remained in their position at T2 indicated that
serving children was their most preferred job (Jackson et al. 1986). In addition, 30%
indicated a preference for employment in fields other than serving children. Given the
complexity of the decision and the potential difficulty of leaving the profession, they
concluded that some professionals involuntarily remain in their jobs. This conclusion
is supported by the results of a study of 500 professionals reported by Watts and
Short (1990). Approximately 67% of those surveyed were considering leaving the
profession. Even more problematic is the fact that, of those who were considering
leaving the profession, almost 64% indicated they were unable to leave for various
reasons, e.g. ‘waiting to retire’ (Watts and Short 1990).
Total work experience, years in current position, and number of previous positions
had no effect on professionals’ job satisfaction levels leading them to leave the job. On
the contrary, Sari (2004), in his study, reported that more experienced professionals
are more dissatisfied by their jobs than their less experienced colleagues. As
Huberman (1993) has stated, this problem requires urgent consideration by special
education policy-makers, who want to maintain the interest and involvement of
experienced professionals in improving the serving for children with special needs.
In conclusion, the findings of this study show that Turkish social professionals
serving children with special needs are most likely to be negatively affected by lack of
printed material, lack of audio-visual material, lack of administrative support, lack of
professional development and paperwork overload. Even though these factors do not
lead to a high turnover, maintenance of one or more of them leads the professionals
to consider leaving the profession. Those findings support both national and
international literature and show that social professionals working with children with
special needs and their families face similar problems regardless of the culture. Even
though every country has its own legislation and laws for service delivery, in practice
it is clear that the legislation is more focused on the outcomes of the service provided.
However, outcomes that serve society cannot be achieved without the social
professionals themselves providing services, and their role should not be under-
estimated. Thus, on an international basis, the authors suggest that policy makers
should be more sensitive to the needs of professionals serving children and their
families. New legislation should include not only a task analysis of the professionals
but also their work conditions. It should be noted that positive outcomes of
legislation are related to the social professionals’ efforts in serving society.
Cumulative negative effects will result in professionals leaving the profession, which
will also affect the quality of the service provided to society. Thus, improvement of
the work conditions of social professionals should be strongly considered by policy
makers. On a national basis, the authors also suggest that in order to increase the job
satisfaction of professionals in relation to the factors considered in this study,
administrators in institutions should be mindful of professionals’ burnout and job
satisfaction. They should also endeavour to achieve an improvement in the quality of
working life in educational settings. The study results suggest that administrators in
institutions and in the Ministry of National Education should be concerned with
professionals’ burnout in the face of increasing demands which adversely affect their
well-being, and consequently, that of children.
 European Journal of Social Work 461

Acknowledgements
This paper was presented at the II International Conference on Special Education, ICOSE-
2008, Marmaris, Turkey.

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