The purpose of this paper is to study relationship of emotional labor of early childhood teacher, teacher-efficacy and teacher-child interaction.
The following questions are to be explored in this paper.
1. What is the difference in degrees of emo...
The purpose of this paper is to study relationship of emotional labor of early childhood teacher, teacher-efficacy and teacher-child interaction.
The following questions are to be explored in this paper.
1. What is the difference in degrees of emotional labor?
2. How significantly related are emotional labor, teacher-efficacy and teacher-child interaction?
3. How much does emotional labor affect teacher-efficacy and teacher-child interaction?
A survey of 238 teachers of kindergartens and day-care facilities in Dae-Jeon and Chung-Chung Do, South Korea was conducted for this study.
Several research methods were utilized in the survey design. In order to measure degrees of emotional labor, a revised Emotional Labor Scale (ELS, Grandey, 2000) by Lee(2007) was used which was further developed from Gilstrap(2005)’s ELS. To estimate values of teacher-efficacy, a modified scale by Lee(1998) was developed since it was originally designed for elementary school study. To measure values of teacher-children interaction, questionnaires and sclaes from Choi(2009) exploring various early child education programs were employed.
Data were analyzed with frequency percent, ANOVA, t-test, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis.
The results obtained by this study are as follows:
First, no significant difference is found in degrees of emotional labor depending upon the teacher’s age, academic background, work experience, children’s age, certificates, and type of facility.
Second, there are positive correlations between total value of emotional labor and that of teacher-efficacy. As sub-factors of emotional labor, natural acting and deep acting respectively show positive correlations with both total value of teacher-efficacy and each three sub-category of it Surface acting, the third sub-factor of emotional labor, also presents positive correlations with total value of teacher-efficacy and each two sub-category of it: self-regulatory efficacy and self-confidence. But it does not show a significant correlation with task difficulty preference.
The total value of emotional labor and that of teacher-child interaction have a positive correlation. Looking into three sub-factors of emotional labor, each sub-factor shows positive relations with both total value of teacher-child interaction and each three sub-category of it: emotional, verbal, and behavioral interaction.
Lastly, overall emotional labor have a significant influence on overall teacher efficacy. Looking into sub factors, two of three sub-factors of emotional labor are in order of deep acting and natural acting in regards to degrees of influence on overall teacher-efficacy and two sub factors of it: self-regulatory efficacy and self-confidence. Surface acting has no influence on either of overall or each sub-category of teacher-efficacy.
Overall emotional labor also affects overall teacher-child interaction. Sub-factors of emotional labor are in order of deep acting and natural acting in regards to degrees of effect on overall teacher-child interaction and each three sub-category of it. Surface acting affects neither overall nor each sub-category.
The results show that proper emotional labor has positive effects on effective teaching as well as teacher’s administrative tasks.
Furthermore, this study argues that natural and deep acting of emotional labor need to be encouraged in order to enhance teacher efficacy and the quality of teacher-child interaction.