The purpose of this study was to focus on Mr. B, a man in his 70s who worked as a teacher at a special needs school until retirement, and to identify the process by which he worked without considering an earlier retirement. By clarifying this, we can examine Mr. B’s experiences since he was a student himself, which have changed his sense of self and why he was able to work for so long.
The study used semi-structured interviews followed by trajectory equifinality modeling to analyze the data. We identified three factors that enabled Mr. B to work as a special-needs teacher without thinking about early retirement. First, he chose an academic field in which he could contribute to society, rather than a field based solely on his interests. Second, for Mr. B, fully demonstrating his values was linked to his desire to work. Third, after becoming a special-needs teacher, he was able to maintain an environment in which he was continuously involved with children and their parents, and his work always left him feeling that he was performing a service of value. This has allowed him to see any unforeseen events that happened to his students as his own concern, rather than as a daunting setback. He also enjoyed watching children grow up and continued to support them and their parents as a volunteer after retiring.