Teacher work environments are toddler learning environments: teacher professional well-being, classroom emotional support, and toddlers’ emotional expressions and behaviours

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the professional well-being of teachers, the classroom emotional support, and the emotional experiences of toddlers in their care. Professional well-being of teachers is conceptualized to include teacher feelings about their work, autonomy in decision-making, actual wages, and perceptions of fairness of wages within the programme as well as within the early childhood profession at large. The study empirically supports relationships among teacher professional well-being, classroom emotional support, and the emotional expressions and behaviours of toddlers. Early childhood policy implications regarding teacher professional well-being and toddler classroom emotional environments are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Childcare
• teacher work environments
• toddlers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Deborah J. Cassidy, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of HumanDevelopment and Family Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her work addresses early childhood quality particularly as it relates to professional development in the early care and education field.

Elizabeth K. King, Ph.D. studies the preparation and support of early childhood educators to facilitate child development. Her work focuses on teacher work environments, teacher professional development, teacher-child interactions, and teacher emotion language and child social emotional competence.

Yudan C. Wang is Research Associate at the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Elon University. Her work focuses on research methods, measurement, parent-child relationships, and culture.

Joanna K. Lower, Ph.D., is a Social Scientist. She is an adjunct instructor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her interests focus on the intersections of policy and practice, child and family advocacy, diversity and inclusion, and sustainable methodologies for change.

Victoria L. Kintner-Duffy is a professional development specialist with Touchstone and adjunct instructor for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her work focuses on supporting effective teacher-child interactions and improving teacher work environments.