| Early childhood teacher construction is the core of preschool education development,and is the key to achieving "education for all".However,in the 2019 China Preschool Education Annual Report,it is noted that there is a shortage of 520,000 full-time preschool teachers,and with the opening of the "three-child" policy,higher demands are placed on preschool education supply services.In addition,the "high demand and low support" working environment of kindergartens is also depleting the enthusiasm of early childhood teachers,making them more likely to suffer from burnout and leave the profession than other stages of education,leading to instability in the early childhood teaching force and limiting the pace of quality development of preschool education in China.In previous studies,people have mostly thought in terms of leaving the profession,while in this study,the perspective was switched to explore the relationship between social support and early childhood teachers’ willingness to stay in the profession and its influence mechanism.This study consists of two parts.The first part of the study is a qualitative study of the willingness of early childhood teachers to stay in their jobs.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 early childhood teachers using the rooted theory research method to understand the factors influencing the willingness of early childhood teachers to stay in their jobs.In the second part of the study,420 kindergarten teachers from 9 kindergartens in Guangzhou were surveyed using electronic and paper questionnaires.The study was conducted to find out the current status of social support,sense of career mission and intention to stay in kindergarten,and to examine the mediating effect of sense of career mission by analysing different demographic variables.The interrelationship between social support,sense of professional mission and intention to stay in the profession was verified in two ways.The results of the quantitative and qualitative studies are analysed and summarised,and suggestions are made to enhance the willingness of early childhood teachers to stay in their jobs.The results of the qualitative study found that the willingness of early childhood teachers to stay in their jobs is influenced by three factors: personal attributes,social environment and organisational factors.The personal trait factors include personal growth,personality traits and professional identity;the social environment factors include the government,parents,teachers’ families and social workers;and the organisational factors include interpersonal relationships,external environment,human environment,school system and professional development.The results of the quantitative study found that,firstly,teachers’ social support,sense of professional mission and willingness to stay in their jobs were in the medium to high range.Secondly,there were significant differences in the social support,sense of professional mission and willingness to stay in their jobs in terms of age,teaching experience,monthly salary,education and marital status.Thirdly,there is a significant correlation between social support,sense of professional mission and willingness to stay in the profession.Regression analysis showed that subjective support,use of support and career vocation were all significant positive predictors of teachers’ willingness to stay in their jobs.Fourth,a sense of professional mission partially mediated the relationship between social support and teachers’ willingness to stay in the profession,with a mediating effect of 55.3% of the total effect.Finally,based on the results of the above study,the following suggestions are made in response to the problems found: in terms of social support: improve teachers’ salaries and reduce the differences between inside and outside the establishment;update the public’s professional perceptions to improve social status and recognition;improve the use of support to alleviate occupational stress and burnout.In terms of professional mission: improve teachers’ professional identity,cultivate professional emotions and beliefs;focus on teachers’ personality traits to stimulate the awareness of their own mission;improve their professional quality and explore the meaning and value of their work.In terms of willingness to stay in the workplace: create a harmonious humanistic environment in the school to enhance their loyalty to the organization;provide a development platform and space to pay attention to teachers’ personalized professional growth;build a reasonable school system to clarify teachers’ work tasks and responsibilities. |
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