The role of kindergarten teachers as a viable alternative to childcare is becoming increasingly important due to the rising amount of time children spend in educational institutions compared to the ...time, they spend with their parents in the home environment. The primary aim of this research is to assess the influence of directorial leadership, the educational environment, teacher efficacy, and extracurricular programmes on the level of job satisfaction experienced by kindergarten teachers. This study includes a sample size of 256 kindergarten teachers. The research findings were subjected to analysis using Smart PLS 4 software, employing the Partial Least Squares (PLS) algorithm and the Bootstrapping method. The findings of the empirical study indicate a positive correlation between the leadership of directors, the educational environment, teacher efficacy, and extracurricular programmes with the job satisfaction of kindergarten teachers. This study holds both theoretical and practical significance, as its findings demonstrate the potential to enhance the working environment for teachers responsible for primary childhood education. Additionally, it provides fundamental data that can contribute to the improvement of children's learning abilities and offers a foundation for policymaking that takes into account the health education of teachers.
•Significant differences in the perceived understanding of NPST between each shareholder.•Substantial differences in the achieved level of NPST requirements between each shareholder.•The teachers’ ...education background was highly correlated with their understanding and achieved levels of NPST.
The Educational Authorities of China established the National Professional Standards for Kindergarten Teachers (NPST) in 2012. This study aims to examine whether Chinese kindergarten teachers are professionally qualified after the eight-year implementation of NPST. Altogether 115 preservice teachers, 178 inservice teachers, 10 teacher educators, and 10 principals were randomly sampled and surveyed through a major teacher education university in Hubei, China. The results indicated that: (1) there were significant differences in the perceived understanding of NPST between the preservice teachers, inservice teachers, teacher educators, and principals; (2) there were substantial differences in the achieved level of NPST requirements between the preservice teachers, inservice teachers, teacher educators, and principals; (3) the teachers’ education background was highly correlated with their understanding and achieved levels of each NPST item. The findings imply that more efforts and measures should be made to improve the implementation of NPST.
This paper reviews the development of Al-Muna Kindergarten teachers’ activities to improve the teachers’ creativity through Batik decorative designs. The research method uses qualitative methods with ...an interdisciplinary approach. The research data were collected by observation, interview, and documentation techniques. Checking the data validity uses source triangulation. Subsequently, it is analyzed through flow reduction, presentation, and data verification. The results indicate that the development of Batik’s decorative design of creative activities had an impact on the improvement of teachers’ ability in the art of creativity. Through Batik’s decorative designs, the teacher's creativity was formed by definition, namely the formation of one's personality with a positive side to find out new things by creating prases (systems) and products. The product produced is the making of Batik motif paintings with decorative designs on glass media, where the activity development period is for two weeks with two activity stages. Al-Muna Kindergarten teachers’ involvement was 10 teachers with a basic understanding of art that has almost the same assumption survey, which states that teacher's creativity art has not developed yet as expected in terms of professional competency development for PAUD teachers with cheerful and flexible principles. Thus, the research results indicate a good impact on Al-Muna Kindergarten teachers’ development.
Kindergarten teachers are often exposed to great stress. Considering that, mindfulness has been demonstrated to act as a critical role in the psychological well-being of kindergarten teachers. The ...present study assessed mindfulness in teaching (MT), psychological distress and emotional intelligence (EI) among 511 kindergarten teachers in mainland China and investigated the mediating role of EI to explore the association mechanism between kindergarten teachers' MT and psychological distress. The major results suggested that kindergarten teachers' MT was negatively related to their psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and stress). Results of path analyses indicated that the total score of EI and dimension of regulation of emotion (ROE) could serve as significant mediators. The findings suggest that mindfulness might be beneficial to relieve kindergarten teachers' psychological distress through the mediating role of EI.
This study examined the relationships between kindergartens teachers’ emotional labour strategies and their relations to instructional leadership, trust in colleagues, teaching experiences, and ...teaching satisfaction. With a sample of 491 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong, this study found that surface acting negatively predicted while deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion positively predicted teachers’ teaching satisfaction; instructional leadership and trust in colleagues were positively related to deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion, respectively. Meanwhile, teaching experience was found to be positively related to their adoption of expression of naturally felt emotion and teaching satisfaction. These findings shed light on the nature of kindergarten teachers’ work, and provide some implications for teacher development in kindergartens.
Although the importance of psychological capital has been firmly supported by prior studies, the question of whether certain subgroups exist and how these various subgroups affect work engagement ...differentially remains under-explored. To gain an in-depth understanding of this problem, the present study conducted a person-centered method (latent profile analysis) to identify subgroups and then explore the relationship between psychological capital subgroups and work engagement. The study participants were kindergarten teachers in China (
= 2,790). The results showed that psychological capital was divided into three latent profiles: "rich type" (43.2% of the sample) "medium type" (46.3%), and "poor type" (10.5%). Compared to the other two types, the teachers with high psychological capital returned higher work engagement scores. Meanwhile, there was a significant difference among the three identified profiles regarding the location of the kindergarten, the type of kindergarten, and the teaching experience. The group owning more psychological capital tended to have more teaching experience, come from a developed area, and work in a public kindergarten. And after controlling the influence of the type of kindergarten, the location of kindergarten, and the teaching experience, the psychological capital of kindergarten teachers was still an important factor that affected teachers' work engagement.
Early childhood education provides an important arena for fostering valuable habits and practices for sustainability. This paper contributes to understanding the educator's role within early ...childhood environmental education in foraging and gardening practices. What pedagogical approaches does the teacher provide to foster the children's participation, engagement, and learning in such activities? To investigate this question, we used a qualitative approach, including video and on-site interviews with kindergarten teachers during foraging or gardening activities. We also analyzed semi-structural interviews and collected field notes for in-depth views and reflections from the teachers. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflective thematic analysis. The data analysis suggests three themes that exemplify hallmarks of the teacher's role: (1) facilitating adventurous experience, (2) child-centered communication, and (3) building collective knowledge and skills. The implications for the future are discussed with respect to the kindergarten teacher's pivotal function in supporting children as eco-citizens for sustainability. The data show that the kindergarten teachers' over-arching role is to take leadership of fostering engagement and learning for everyone involved.
This study explored the relationship between social support and job satisfaction in kindergarten teachers, and the mediating role of coping styles in this relationship. A sample of 617 kindergarten ...teachers (
= 25.13 years,
= 5.66 years) from kindergartens in mainland China completed questionnaires measuring social support, job satisfaction, and coping style. The results showed that social support was positively related to job satisfaction and positive coping style was positively associated with social support and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results revealed that positive coping style, but not negative coping style, had a mediating effect on the relationship between kindergarten teachers' social support and job satisfaction. This study provides initial evidence that coping style mediates the link between social support and job satisfaction in kindergarten teachers, and suggests that increasing social support and encouraging positive coping style could improve kindergarten teachers' job satisfaction.
Burnout among kindergarten teachers is a subject of great concern. Although burnout is reported to be significantly associated with turnover intention and work engagement, few studies have examined ...factors associated with burnout among these teachers. Therefore, in the present study, we performed a cross-sectional survey of burnout and associated factors among kindergarten teachers. We distributed 3363 questionnaires to all 205 authorized kindergartens and childcare institutions in Nagasaki Prefecture and received 1086 responses (response rate: 32.3%). The participants were limited to full-time female class teachers. After excluding survey forms with incomplete content, we ultimately examined valid responses from 442 participants. The survey examined burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory, MBI), teacher stress (Nursery Teacher’s Stress Scale, NTSS), coping behaviors (Brief Scales for Coping Profile, BSCP), and social support (Social Support Scale, SSS). A multiple regression analysis revealed that all 3 MBI subscales were positively associated with “understanding of how to handle children” on the NTSS and negatively associated with “superiors” on the SSS. “Emotional exhaustion” was significantly associated with “interpersonal relations at work” and “lack of time” on the NTSS, and “avoidance and suppression” on the BSCP. “Depersonalization” was significantly associated with age, “disconnect in working conditions” on the NTSS, and “proactive problem solving” and “venting emotions to others” on the BSCP. “Diminished professional accomplishment” was significantly associated with age, “lack of time” on the NTSS, and “proactive problem solving” and “change in perspective” on the BSCP. These results suggest that support from superiors that enables teachers to better understand children and handle them appropriately is necessary to prevent burnout.
Kindergarten teachers’ emotions are an essential factor in their physical and psychological wellbeing. Previous studies mainly focused on the relationship between kindergarten teachers’ emotions and ...their students’ emotions while ignoring the important relationships between kindergarten teachers’ emotions and their own wellbeing (e.g., teachers’ health, job satisfaction, burnout). Therefore, this study explores teacher emotions as predictor variables, illness symptoms, and job satisfaction as criterion variables, and emotional exhaustion as a mediator. In total, 1997 kindergarten teachers completed the Teacher’s Emotion Scale, the Occupational Emotional Exhaustion Scale, the Illness Symptoms Scale, and the Job Satisfaction Scale. Results revealed that enjoyment negatively predicted illness symptoms and positively predicted job satisfaction via the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. The opposite relationships were found with anger, also confirming the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Anxiety positively predicted illness symptoms, completely mediated by emotional exhaustion, but no relationship was found with job satisfaction. The function of emotions in teachers’ physical and mental health, implications for kindergartens’ research and practice, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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