Early Childhood Teachers’ Self-efficacy and Professional Support Predict Work Engagement

Abstract

Early childhood teachers play a central role in children’s learning and development. Yet, they encounter stressors that can negatively impact their well-being, relationships with children, and, ultimately, job retention. To inform efforts to support early childhood teachers’ work-related well-being, the current study examines positive factors that predict work engagement. Participants were 50 early childhood teachers from Head Start (34%), center-based programs (32%), and licensed home-based programs (34%). Consistent with a resilience framework and the Job Demands-Resources model, we examined both a personal resource (self-efficacy) and a workplace resource (professional support) in relation to work engagement, or the positive, fulfilling connection to one’s work. Teachers’ self-efficacy and professional support predicted greater work engagement, accounting for job demands (teachers’ compassion fatigue/work distress and children’s challenging behaviors) and teachers’ education and professional development. Although not causal, findings are suggestive that supporting early childhood teachers with what they need to do their job effectively and feel that they can make meaningful differences in children’s lives may help them to engage in their work with passion, dedication, and positive energy. Ultimately, supporting teachers’ work engagement may in turn have developmental benefits for children as well.

Enhancing Chinese EFL Teachers’ Work Engagement: The Role of Self and Collective Efficacy

“…Generally, our results are in line with Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2019) , who believed that “in the actual teaching situation, the teachers are primarily alone and must trust their own skills and abilities” (p. 1406). A similar pattern of results was obtained by Lipscomb et al (2021) in that self-efficacious educators with positive attitudes toward their capabilities in employing operational methodologies, involving learners have a great tendency to involve in the instruction. This study is also consistent with Kong (2021) , who mentioned that teachers with higher levels of self-efficacy can prevail over the teaching difficulties, put more effort into instruction, and have higher levels of grittiness in facing demanding issues.…”

“… Grigg et al (2018) found out that engagement in particular tasks provides the opportunity for the instructors to develop their teaching capability and self-efficacy. The study of Lipscomb et al (2021) revealed that teachers’ self-efficacy and education are significantly correlated with teacher work engagement. They stated that self-efficacious teachers who have confidence in their ability to teach effectively to the elementary learners are eagerly involved in their job.…”

How Policies and Policy Actors Shape the Pre-K Borderland: Implications for Early Childhood Educators’ Work Experiences

“…Enhanced connections between pre-K teachers and elementary colleagues may contribute positively to pre-K teachers' sense of belonging, which has been found to mediate teacher job satisfaction and motivation to stay in the profession (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011). The prospect of collaboration is also among the factors that contribute to preschool teachers' self-efficacy, which is positively associated with children's learning (Guo et al, 2010;Lipscomb et al, 2021).…”

“…At ELCs, she explained, it could feel like you are just "tucked away somewhere," and "no one's paying attention." The perception that a lack of recognition by the school district could be linked to teacher turnover is borne out by recent research suggesting that early childhood teachers may be more dedicated to the profession when they receive the support and recognition that helps them feel competent and successful (Lipscomb et al, 2021).…”

Teoría de las demandas y los recursos laborales en el profesorado. Una revisión sistemática

“…Por otra parte, algunas demandas laborales, como la mala conducta del alumnado, afectan de forma negativa al compromiso laboral, aunque su efecto puede ser moderado por los recursos laborales (Bakker et al, 2007;Lipscomb et al, 2021). Igualmente, el hecho de tener que realizar tareas ilegítimas puede afectar negativamente el compromiso, además de activar el proceso de deterioro de la salud, propiciar la aparición de comportamientos negativos y derivar en el abandono del trabajo (Van Niekerk et al, 2021).…”