Description
Teaching in an early child care environment is highly stressful with many demands, such as challenging child behaviors, paperwork, and administrative demands. A demanding work environment can be linked to a decrease in job satisfaction and consequently teacher turnover. Compared to other teacher settings, teacher turnover rates in early child care centers are greater. The negative impact teacher turnover has on the children they serve, in addition to the overall psychological and physical health of the teachers is why it is imperative for early child care teachers to be supported in gaining skills to increase their sensitivity and coping strategies. This study examines the use of reflective practice for early childhood educators and whether it leads to a positive effect on teacher perceptions of work related stressors. The participants were sixteen lead teachers from the three of the center's site locations. Quantitative data were used to gain an understanding of teacher perceptions of work related resources and demands, psychological coping strategies, and their ability to self-regulate and use insight. Qualitative data were collected from journals that provided insight in to teacher's reflections on each one of the eight collaborative group sessions. From the triangulation of the data many stress-related themes were discovered which include, lack of administrative support, unmanageable workload, and challenging child behaviors. The findings from this study indicate that reflective practice may have a positive impact on teachers' perceptions of stress. A replication of the study with an increase in the length of the treatment as well as an increase in the sample size would allow for greater generalizability. The findings also suggest that these early childhood educators are experiencing unmanageable amounts of stress which has been linked to teacher turnover.
