This paper explores initial results from phase one of a research project examining early childhood practitioners' (ECP) perceptions of empathy within their practice. Empathy is widely understood as the ability to understand others' feelings, to see things through other people's eyes, imagining what it would be like to be that person in that…

The present study explored the relation among Chinese preschool climate, teachers' job satisfaction, and their occupational commitment. This study followed 137 preschool teachers for six months in a longitudinal design. The findings indicated that after controlling teachers' demographic information, the teacher-perceived preschool climate was…

This study explores the resilience of preschool and elementary school teachers (ISCED Level 1) in the Czech Republic. The data were gathered from a sample of 476 preschool teachers and 193 elementary school teachers using The Sense of Coherence Scale, a 29-item measure developed by Antonovsky. This scale consists of three dimensions, specifically…

Given Canada's increasingly diverse population, a better understanding of the representation of different groups among Canadian workers and their economic characteristics is needed. This study analyzes the diversity, economic characteristics, and retention of workers in Canada's early learning and child care (ELCC) sector. Using census data,…

This phenomenological qualitative study explores how public school pre-kindergarten teachers in Florida perceive their principals' understanding of early learning standards and developmentally appropriate practices. The problem addressed is that prekindergarten teachers are evaluated by their principals using state-approved evaluation rubrics…

Due to limited data, we know little about the prevalence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) educators. Using the American Community Survey and Census Pulse, we examine the representation of LGBTQ+ individuals in PK-12 teaching. We find that 3.3-3.5 percent of LGBTQ+ individuals are teachers; in contrast, 4.4-4.9 percent of…

This exploratory cross-sectional study aimed to identify whether specific sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics could predict educators' comfort working with sexuality minority people and willingness to take action in their own school or classrooms to help children and sexuality and gender minority parents feel accepted and welcome. The…

Empathy can be a powerful means for positive social change and for caring action toward wildlife and nature. Thus, there is a need for interventions that build the capacity of early childhood educators to support empathy development in young children, given the critical developmental period of early childhood and the relevance of empathy to…

Providing high-quality mathematics instruction is vital for children because early mathematics skills are a strong predictor of later academic success. Unfortunately, not all early childhood preservice teachers (PSTs) have positive attitudes toward mathematics and, as a group, report one of the highest levels of mathematics anxiety (Bates, A. B.,…

Pre-school teachers' competence to see and decide to use learning opportunities in informal play-based situations (i.e. situation-specific skills) is key for high-quality pre-school instruction. Current insights into pre-school teachers' situation-specific skills and their association with underlying teacher disposition and instructional materials…

Research studies and national education standards support the importance of young children acquiring narrative skills for early language and literacy development. Less is known, however, about teachers' beliefs about how essential it is to provide young children with narrative instruction. Using a person-centered approach, the current study…

This qualitative, phenomenological case study was conducted to explore preschool teachers' and clinicians' understandings of social-emotional development and their perceptions of self-efficacy in teaching social-emotional learning (SEL) to their preschool students. Gaining an understanding of the participants' self-efficacy provided insight on how…

Turnover in the US early childhood education (ECE) workforce is associated with worse outcomes for children. Greater workplace spirituality, or the perception of meaningful work, sense of community, and alignment with organizational values, is associated with reduced turnover. However, this association has not been examined in ECE professionals.…

A subset of extant data (N = 423) from the Family Life Project, a population-based study of Black and White families with low incomes from rural communities, were used to test for associations between teacher depressive symptoms and children's cognitive outcomes at 36 months. A second aim tested whether early care and education (ECE) quality…

There are limited studies involving the relationship between preschool teachers' job burnout and their professional engagement and career development aspirations. This study classified latent profiles according to job burnout indices for Chinese preschool teachers and examined the characteristics of each profile and how they affect professional…