The shortage of highly qualified candidates for faculty positions in special education at institutions of higher education (IHEs) in California continues to constrain IHEs ability to train adequate numbers of classroom teachers. This descriptive study examined the current cohort of doctoral students majoring in special education at IHEs in California, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

The participants were asked to respond to a survey based on the instrument developed by Smith et al. (2001) in their national landmark study of special education leadership for the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Subsets of participants from each doctoral program in California were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to discuss the particular factors that will influence their career choices. The surveys and interviews were analyzed using the framework of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to identify which factors are most influential to special education doctoral students' career choices.