In this dissertation, the problem of early childhood teacher turnover is approached from the perspective of professional identity. During three-part semi-structured interviews with twelve highly-educated infant-toddler teachers working in NAEYC-accredited centers in a mid-Atlantic metropolitan area, participants shared information about their career decisions and professional identities. The participant teachers, who were more highly-educated than a representative sample would be, generally "fell into" the career without having had any pre-service training specific to working with infants and toddlers. Teachers described their jobs in terms of boredom and / or frustration, and found more value in experiential learning than from formal professional development opportunities. Teachers in this study self-identified as professional "teachers" while perceiving themselves to be other-identified as unskilled "day care workers." Teachers in this study did not view teaching infants and toddlers as a long-term career option. The findings suggest that the public's perception of infant-toddler teachers as unskilled workers may encourage highly-educated teachers to leave the profession. I use these findings to make recommendations for pre-service educators, administrators, and policymakers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CHENGCHI/U0003502652 |
| Creators | Williams, Alyson E. |
| Publisher | The George Washington University. |
| Source Sets | National Chengchi University Libraries |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Rights | Copyright © nccu library on behalf of the copyright holders |
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