Enhancing educational support through sports-inspired engagement: exploring factors impacting teacher commitment in special needs schools
Abstract
Teacher engagement in special needs schools is pivotal to the delivery of inclusive, equitable, and high-quality education. This study investigated the multidimensional factors influencing teacher engagement by examining the roles of experience, training, collaboration, Sports involvement, and school resources in special education settings. Utilizing a sample of 850 teachers involved in educational support during the Athens Marathon from 2018 to 2022, the study employed the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test five hypotheses. Results indicated that teacher experience (β = 0.27, p < 0.001), training (β = 0.31, p < 0.001), and collaboration (β = 0.25, p < 0.001) significantly influence student outcomes and teacher satisfaction, while sports involvement and resource availability emerge as critical factors in enhancing emotional development and job contentment. Despite initial model limitations, a refined SEM model offers improved explanatory power, reinforcing the need for adaptive frameworks in assessing teacher motivation and satisfaction. These findings underscore the importance of systemic support, professional development, and stakeholder collaboration in sustaining effective educational practices in special needs environments.
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The works and papers that are published in this Journal are subject to the following terms:
1. The Publication Service of the University of Murcia (the publisher) has the Publication Rights (Copyright) to the published papers and works, and favors and permits the reusing of the same under the license indicated in point 2.
© Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Murcia, 2013
2. The papers and works are to be published in the digital edition of the Journal under the license Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Obra Derivada 3.0 España (legal text). The copying, using, spreading, transmitting and publicly displaying of the papers, works or publication are permitted as long as: i) the authors and original sources (Journal, publisher and URL of the publication) are quoted; ii) it is not used for commercial benefit; iii) the existence and specifications of this users license are mentioned.
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