Factors Related to Retention and Self-Efficacy of Special Education Teachers Working with Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder- Behavior Problems in Tabuk-Saudi Arabia: Teachers’ Interviews
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Special educators' self-efficacy and retention may be negatively impacted due to many factors related to work conditions and internal factors related to teachers themselves. In this qualitative methodology, I aimed to explore factors that influence teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to stay in their careers and factors affecting their self-efficacy to teach students with autism in Tabuk-Saudi Arabia. This study was based upon Bandura's theoretical construct of self-efficacy and conceptual models of special educators' retention. Six participants: four male and two female special educators participated in semi-structured interviews. After using the qualitative data analysis program Dedoose to analyze data, six themes emerged that described the self-efficacy and retention of teachers of students with ASD's. These themes are educators’ stress, educators’ positive relationships with others, educators’ motivations, personal qualities of effective special educators, educators’ expertise, and occupational decisions. This study recommending future research should study the topics that emerged from this current research with a larger sample that includes males and females from different regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi.