This research purposes to investigate the relation between professional recognitions and job satisfactions of early childhood teachers, and to analyze the effects of the level of professional recognitions of early childhood teachers on the job satisfa...
This research purposes to investigate the relation between professional recognitions and job satisfactions of early childhood teachers, and to analyze the effects of the level of professional recognitions of early childhood teachers on the job satisfactions.
In this purpose, the specific research problems are as follows.
Research Problem 1, what are differences of professional recognitions as a teacher according to the background-related variables of early childhood teachers?
Research Problem 2, what are differences of the level of job satisfaction according to the background-related variables of early childhood teachers?
Research Problem 3, what is the relationship between the professional factors and job satisfaction factors of early childhood teachers?
Research Problem 4, what are influences of professional recognitions on job satisfactions of early childhood teachers?
The subjects of this research are 97 teachers after collecting and analyzing questionnaires distributed to selected 100 teachers working in private kindergartens in the jurisdiction of South District Office of Education in Seoul. To investigate professional recognitions of early childhood teachers, a test translated and modified by Sook-Hee Wee(2008) is used, and to evaluate job satisfactions, the questionnaires translated and modified by Yu-jin Song(1993) is used.
The data collected are processed by SPSS Win 18.0, to evaluate the frequency, percentile, and Cronbach’s Alpha to verify the validity of the measurement; t-test and the variance analysis(one-way ANOVA) are implemented to investigate the differences between job satisfaction and professional level perceived by early childhood teachers, a correlation analysis to investigate the relation between job satisfactions and sub factors of professional recognition, a multiple regression prediction analysis to evaluate influences of sub factors of professional recognitions in each sector on job satisfaction.
The results of this research can be summarized as follows.
First, the level of professional recognition is shown to have no statistically significant difference according to the background-related variables of early childhood teachers. Second, the level of job satisfaction is shown to have no statistically significant difference according to the background-related variables of early childhood teachers. Third, the sub factors of professional recognitions and job satisfactions of early childhood teachers are observed to have a positive relationship with a high correlation coefficient(.421~.893). Fourth, as we investigate influences of professional recognitions on job satisfactions of early childhood teachers, it turns out that professional recognitions give a high account of job satisfaction and that the prediction variable for professional recognitions to explain job satisfactions is 50.2%.
From the research results, we can conclude the followings.
First, professional recognitions and job satisfactions perceived by early childhood teachers show no difference according to the ages, educational backgrounds, and careers of teachers. Second, a strong positive relationship between professional recognitions and sub factors is observed. Especially, the correlation between professional recognitions and the satisfaction with personal relations with colleagues and the principal is .89, thus the personal relations are more closely related to the teaching professionalism than incomes, promotions and/or the level of satisfaction with job environments. Third, as we regard the influences of sub factors in each sector of job satisfactions of teachers, it turns out that the total score of professional recognition and the professionality on the education management are the most important factors to account job satisfactions.
On the basis of this research, we suggest the followings.
First, job satisfactions related with professional recognitions of early childhood teachers are observed to have a close relationship with personal relationships in the educational institutes. That means, positive personal relationships with colleagues and the principal are most important for a teacher to recognize his or her professionalism. Thus, if it is necessary to enhance a system to support the developments of professionalism of early childhood teachers, firstly it should be required to inspect personal relationships in institutes and to support strategies for an effective improvement of relationships.
Second, the enhancement of professionalism among early childhood teachers can be achieved when teachers recognize the professionality and satisfied with the job, as well as when outstanding individuals are selected as teachers and trained through a systematic in-service teacher training. Therefore, it is necessary to put continuous efforts into improving professionality and efficacy of teachers through the programs and workshops within the early childhood education institutes.