DE DICIEMBRE CALLE SANTA ROSA#S/N ENTRE SUCRE Y 7 DE

This research study conceptualised within an interpretivist framework and utilising a case study, aimed to explore the career development needs of teachers of learners with autism in a Gauteng school. A purposive sample of five teachers at an independent school for learners with autism in Johannesburg allowed for in-depth exploration of the research question. Three data sets, namely semi-structured individual interviews, collages and a focus group interview were used followed by a rigorous content analysis with QSR International Nvivo 10 to ensure relevance of the findings.

The scarcity of South African research in the field of career development needs, specifically pertaining to teachers who mainly work with learners on the autism spectrum, the increase in autism prevalence rates and the Department of Education’s need to provide specialized education and school access for learners with ASD, contributed to the relevance of this study in supporting the goals of White Paper 6.

The importance of this research lies in the contribution it makes to the knowledge pool in the area of researching the career development needs of teachers who educate learners on the autism spectrum. This fulfils several objectives: creating innovative professional development activities for this teacher group, promoting teacher development in the special needs school sector and assisting learners on the autism spectrum with integration into inclusive and special needs school

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settings in South Africa. In addition, it assists in promoting the equality of all teachers through providing them with the necessary professional development support programmes in order for their career development needs to be fulfilled.

The findings of this research have successfully fulfilled the research objectives in three main themes and ten sub-themes. All three themes, namely the need for personal well-being, the need for professional development and the need for effective collaboration could be linked to teachers’ career development needs.

From the findings presented in chapter 3, it became evident that the career development needs of the teachers are linked to their well-being, professional development needs that include a wide variety of PD activities, specific autism intervention training and an overall increase of knowledge on autism. Lastly, effective collaboration with stakeholders including the wider community is needed in order to address the needs of learners with autism more effectively. The applicability of the theories that informed this study, namely, Vygotsky’s Social Constructionist View on Disability and the Theory of Work Adjustment were discussed under relevant themes and sub-theme findings.

The need for personal well-being qualified as the first theme owing to the overwhelming reference made by participants to their well-being and the need for increased self-care, which was evident in all three data sets. Teacher well-being strongly influenced their level of work adjustment and effective occupational functioning. Three sub-themes relating to personal well- being emerged, namely, attraction to and enjoyment of the profession, perceived barriers to well- being, and lastly, intrinsic and extrinsic coping abilities that facilitates well-being. Attraction to and enjoyment of the profession deal with the intrinsic rewards that the teachers receive from their job role. Having a passion to work with learners with ASD was the biggest internal reward, which facilitates work adjustment in that passion influences internal motivation and allows teachers to have a high level of flexibility, which leverages the job stressors of the work role. Therefore, it is recommended that the profession should only be entered if teachers have a passion to work with special needs learners, be interested to learn more about ASD, enjoy a challenge and to think ‘outside-the-box’, enjoy constant problem solving, values creativity,

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freedom and autonomy in their work role and have a true desire to be altruistic. Teachers reported on the barriers to their well-being, with the biggest hindrance being time management ascribed to a heavy workload with not enough time to attend to all the tasks to address the learners needs most optimally. Long working hours were also reported to be detrimental to teachers’ well-being in that it added to their already high levels of emotional and physical exhaustion. Teachers identified ways to facilitate their well-being, namely having a passion to work with learners on the autism spectrum, receiving emotional support from colleagues and management, being flexible and increased self-care. Increased self-care was described to be promoted through taking care of oneself physically and emotionally and the employer facilitating teachers’ well-being, job satisfaction and work adjustment through providing a private staff room where staff can relax and reboot.

The need for professional development (PD) was discussed as the second theme. The sub- themes that emerged were the need for increased autism knowledge, perceived barriers that hinder effective professional development and the need for varied and specific PD activities. There was a strong need for teachers, teacher assistants, parents, the community and the health sector to gain more autism awareness and knowledge. Teachers’ increased knowledge on autism could be acquired through self-study on autism related topics, initial in-service training and advanced autism PD activities. Teachers reported barriers to their professional development to be the challenging behaviour of learners and a lack of pre-service professional development.

Managing challenging behaviour displayed by learners detracted from teachers’ well-being in addition to creating a big need to receive PD in behavioural strategies in order to manage behaviours more effectively. A lack of pre-service professional development in autism education contributed to participants’ sense of unpreparedness to deal with the nature of the work role. The need for varied PD activities included the need for initial in-service and hands-on practice, self-study, external training, performance feedback and teacher assistant professional development. Participants indicated their need to receive specific PD in behavioural intervention of learners with autism. The participants’ needs in terms of receiving autism-specific interventions included training in explicit social skills in different cultures, Makaton, PECS training, sensory processing, applied psychology, speech prompt training, behavioural training,

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autism screening training and floor time. The teachers indicated behavioural intervention training needs as a major and most pressing training need.

The third theme emerged as the need for effective collaboration between relevant stakeholders. As effective provision of education to learners with ASD depends on collaborative teamwork between professionals, families and medical professionals, participants identified constraints to successful collaboration. It is important for teachers who work with learners with autism to be able to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team. However, teachers experience constraints to effective collaboration such as variances in expectations between stakeholders, lack of access to professionals, variances in work ethic and conflicting teacher-assistant relationships. Participants highlighted strategies that could facilitate effective collaboration between the multi-disciplinary team such as improved communication and similar levels of work ethic and commitment and parental management in order to create a healthier, collaborative working environment. The last sub-theme of the theme of collaboration is the need for community practice. Collaboration with the community is important in order to reduce stigma surrounding autism and promote the social inclusion of learners with autism in schools and society. This is in accordance with the philosophy of inclusive education, but also corresponds with Vygotsky’s view of learners with disabilities of having the ability to participate in their school, community and society. This theme relates to the need for involvement in and from the community and pertains to aspects such as a desire to assist the community concerning gaining more autism awareness and screening and reciprocal community involvement between the school and the community.

The values that the study participants sought to fulfil in their role as teachers for learners with ASD according to the Work Adjustment Theory were, achievement, altruism, autonomy, comfort, safety, and support. Only the value of status, with needs such as recognition, authority and social status, were not voiced by 60% or more of the participants. Only one participant (P3) placed a high value on status. The most important value according to the TWA for participants was altruism, which was fulfilled through assisting learners with autism with development, thereby fulfilling participants’ need for purpose, meaning and satisfaction. The need to provide social services to learners with autism was interlinked with their need for achievement in that

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participants felt that their achievements needs were satisfied when learners made breakthroughs with communication or behaviour.

Participants who strongly valued altruism in their work role were found to be especially passionate about their teaching role and they seemed to adjust better to their work environment than those who did not have as much passion for their job.

The second research question that dealt with gauging the level of work adjustment emerged to be contingent on a supportive work environment. Supportive environment factors that were identified by participants to facilitate their work adjustment included: supporting the professional development of teachers, receiving emotional support from management and colleagues, the provision of good working conditions such as a calm staff room where teachers can relax and reboot, and reduced working hours and workload.

The third sub-question which relates to ways in which teachers’ work adjustment could be facilitated emerged to be flexibility and perseverance as work adjustment behaviours. Work adjustment could be facilitated by teachers coping with the stressful nature of the job and leveraging the challenging nature of this teaching profession.

Each of the themes and sub-themes were discussed in detail using findings from all four data sets. Throughout the discussion of findings, literature was carefully integrated with the research findings. The applicability of the Theory of Work Adjustment and Vygotsky’s Social Constructionist view on Disability in relation to the findings have been correlated in Appendix H.

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