Browsing by Subject "TV-TV –malli"

It's been only lately since the research of early education has started to pay attention to kindergarten teachers job demands and resources or their work engagement. International researches according teachers work engagement to date have mainly concerned school teachers, and they are not directly generalizable to kindergarten teachers due to some major differences in job descriptions. This study aimed to find out which factors contribute to the work engagement of kindergarten teachers. There were four research problems: 1) What are the job resources of kindergarten teachers work? 2) What are the job demands of kindergarten teachers work? 3) What are the tensions between the job resources and demands of kindergarten teachers work? 4) How work engagement is formed? This study was carried out as a part of a study in University of Helsinki called Koulutuksesta valmistuminen ja työssä pysyminen lastentarhanopettajan työuralla. This study was conducted as a qualitative survey. The data used in this study was part of University of Helsinki study Koulutuksesta valmistuminen ja työssä pysyminen lastentarhanopettajan työuralla and included two open-ended questions (n = 490). The subject of the study were kindergarten teachers working in the metropolitan area and the surrounding municipalities (a total of five municipalities). The data was analysed using Content Analysis and to support the analysis were used JD-R (Job Demands – Resources) –model. The results of the study brought out that the job resources of kindergarten teachers work were children, pedagogical skills, good working environment and working atmosphere and the superior. Demands on the other hand were the small size of the salary, increased labor challenges, large class sizes, unclear job descriptions and lack of appreciation of the industry. Tensions between the job resources and demands were caused by conflicts between experiencing one's work meaningful and the social recognition of the profession, the disproportion between the salary and job demands, lack of labor peace and blurred job as also increasing in writing and administrative work, that do not match the given resources. Work engagement was formed working with and for the children, personal job resources, appreciation of one's work, self-challenging and adequate time for one's work. The results of this study can be used developing kindergarten teachers work conditions and supporting the work of adhesion.