The development of pre-service preschool teachers : contributions of self, family, and strategy factors

Abstract

Much importance has been placed on preschool teacher education in China, where a severe shortage of preschool teachers has been persistent. Pre-service teachers’ development during teacher preparation programs, especially during their first year of college, could have long-term effects on their future teaching career success and schools’ teacher retention. Therefore, this research aimed to explore factors that influence first-year pre-service preschool teachers’ four developmental outcomes (i.e., academic adjustment, social adjustment, subjective well-being, and vocational identity). Based on the transition theory, the present research investigated 1) the changes in the four developmental outcomes during the first year of college; 2) the contributions of self-esteem (i.e., including personal, relational, and collective self-esteem), family functioning, need for cognition, and future orientation to the four developmental outcomes; and 3) the mediating effects of future orientation and need for cognition in the relationships of self-esteem and family functioning to the four developmental outcomes. The present research adopted a quantitatively-driven mixed-method design, and it involved three phases: the pilot study (a quantitative study), the main study (a two-wave short-term longitudinal, quantitative study), and the follow-up study (a qualitative study). The pilot study validated the inventories utilized in the main study and preliminarily explored the relationships of the key variables among 139 first-year vocational college students majoring in early childhood education from Shanghai, mainland China. The main study investigated the changes in the four developmental outcomes and further explored the relationships among the key variables. At the beginning of their second semester, 539 first-year students majoring in early childhood education from two 3-year vocational colleges in Shanghai, China, responded to the modified inventories and demographic information. Six months later, 507 students reported the four developmental outcomes again. Latent change score models showed that academic adjustment and career commitment (i.e., one dimension of vocational identity) increased, while social adjustment and subjective well-being remained stable. Structural equation models showed that 1) self-esteem, family functioning, need for cognition, and future orientation predicted the initial levels of the four developmental outcomes; 2) need for cognition and future orientation mediated the relationships of self-esteem and family functioning to the initial levels of the four developmental outcomes; and 3) future orientation mediated the relationships of self-esteem to the changes of academic adjustment and vocational identity. Finally, to verify the non-significant effects of family functioning on vocational identity discovered in the main study, the follow-up study involved 13 interviewees selected based on their parental educational level. The findings suggested that family (i.e., parents and other relatives) played crucial roles in students’ college major decision-making and career exploration process (i.e., monitoring and providing financial, emotional, information, and advice support). Research findings deepened the understanding of pre-service preschool teachers’ development during the first year of college and provided longitudinal evidence on the importance of self-esteem, family functioning, future orientation, and need for cognition in their development. The research has practical implications for pre-service preschool teachers, parents, university administrators, as well as instructors and career counselors in helping pre-service preschool teachers go through this challenging period smoothly.