Abstract:
The relationship between administrative support and special education teacher work
engagement is the focus of this study. Special education teachers experience burnout at alarming
rates, and the effects of burnout cause significant hardship for education leaders. This study
identifies specific school organizational health indicators within the building principal’s locus of
control to increase work engagement and prevent burnout.
This study is a secondary analysis of a data set from the Longitudinal Natural Course of
Burnout Survey (LNCBS) administered to teachers throughout the United States. A grant funded
the LNCBS through The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of
Education. The data set used for this secondary analysis is a subsidy within a more extensive
intervention study to adapt and test a special education burnout intervention.
The Supportive Leadership Sum from the School Organizational Health questionnaire
and an abridged version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) are analyzed through
hierarchical regression analysis. Results indicate a statistically significant, positive relationship
between supportive leadership and special education teacher work engagement. In addition,
findings indicate that a teacher’s perception of supportive leadership explains 21% of the
variance in work engagement while controlling for the teacher’s years of experience, gender,
race, ethnicity, and grade level taught. Survey details, limitations, discussion of prior research,
policy recommendations, and implications for further research are also included.
