Date

5-2021

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Nathan Street

Keywords

Special Education, Collegiality, Attrition

Disciplines

Education | Special Education and Teaching

Abstract

The move to an inclusive model has placed additional strain on educators in both general and special education. Collegiality, an identified factor of educator attrition, could serve to reduce that strain. However, little is known about collegiality in education. This quantitative, causal-comparative study examined the differences in perceptions of collegiality among special and general educators from six Mid-Atlantic school districts, using the Teacher Collegiality Scale (TCS). Participants were drawn from a sample population of teachers representing (n = 234) special and (n = 234) general educators. This sample included participants from four states and approximately 235 schools. This sample is the largest, most diverse, and most robust known to date, to have employed the TCS. A MANOVA was used to analyze the data. There was a statistically significant difference between special and general educators’ perceptions of collegiality on the combined dependent variables. The sub-scale sharing resources was independently significant as well. Recommendations for future research include conducting a factorial or path analysis to determine effects of combining various exogenous variables on educators’ perceptions of collegiality. Such research could deepen understanding of the sub-scales of the TCS, how they interact, and their relationships with existing conceptual and theoretical frameworks. As demonstrated by the present study, there is reason to suspect a relationship between attrition and collegiality exists. Further research is needed to ascertain the full breadth and depth of that relationship and explore how that relationship affects other factors of attrition.

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