This study aims to investigate the psychological experiences and characteristics of special education teachers in relationships with disabled adolescents by in-depth interviews. For this, the study conducted qualitative research by applying Colaizzi...
This study aims to investigate the psychological experiences and characteristics of special education teachers in relationships with disabled adolescents by in-depth interviews. For this, the study conducted qualitative research by applying Colaizzi’s phenomenological method to 7 special education teachers, and it resulted in 128 formulated meanings, 49 themes and 15 themeclusters. The results of the analysis are summarized as follows :
In this study, the experiences of special education teachers in relationships with the disabled adolescents are classified as ‘encountering with unfamiliar disability’, ‘confusion in difficulty of mutual communication’, ‘tackling trouble for mutual coordination’, ‘holding for empathic communion’ and ‘joy of facing each other beyond disability’. Psychological characteristics include ‘anger against uncontrollable disabled adolescents’, ‘role impression due to heavy responsibility’, ‘anxiety in situation of helpless limit’, ‘a gap between oneself and a contradictory self’, ‘voluntary challenge to promote change’, ‘enthusiasm for enduring without giving up education’, and ‘reward for empty separation experiences’. The meaning of relationship experiences is ‘reward for growth of disabled adolescents’, ‘expansion of perspective for characteristics of disabled adolescents’ and ‘aiming to grow as a special education teacher’.
First, in the relationship experiences with the disabled adolescents, the participants showed joy of mutual sympathy beyond the impact of the unfamiliar disability. They began to encounter the unfamiliar obstacles, felt shock and fear of it, and experienced both sides of interest and curiosity. Also, they felt frustration because they could not communicate with the disabled adolescents. Nevertheless, they formed mutually subjective relationships that responded to each other in deeper and more detailed manners through embracing through hard processes of coordinating with them.
Second, the internal experiences of them showed 'ambivalence that negative emotions and positive emotions coexist from the experiences'. As special education teachers, they felt anger, frustration, anxiety, powerlessness, divergence, and role humiliation with heavy responsibilities for the adolescents. However, by promoting voluntary challenges to understand the signals of these psychological difficulties and to reflect on themselves, they continued their passion as teachers. And it could be the psychological characteristics of the participants. In addition, they experienced processes of preparing for new disabled adolescents to meet, while experiencing emptiness when separating from the former disabled adolescents and mourning in their own realistic ways.
Third, the meaning of the relationships experiences for them was getting sense of being as special education teachers and feeling the reward and being proud of their students’ subtle growth. Also, the perspective of respecting diversity of the adolescents as a unique being was expanded, and processes of growing into worthy lives with professional satisfaction and vocation.
Hence, The significance of this study is that the psychological phenomenon experienced by special education teachers in the relationship with disabled adolescents are clarified qualitatively from the perspective of psychological counseling, and the psychological phenomenon were revealed in terms of internal individual and interindividual experiences. It is also important that the meaning of the relationship experiences between special education teachers and disabled adolescents was revealed.
As a result, this study would provide practical help and expand understanding relationships between special education teachers and disabled adolescents, including new understanding about special education teachers, by the psychological counseling approaching to the psychological phenomenon of the inner world which special education teachers experiences in the relationships with disabled adolescents. In addition, it is expected to be able to provide basic data on the self-understanding of special education teachers, practical counseling on disabled adolescents, and application of Christian counseling.