Urban Early Childhood Educators Under Pressure: Exploring Effective Coping Mechanisms for Stressful Mandates

• In Event: Obscured Truths and Tensions of ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Professionals: That Which an Obedient Professional Conceals

Abstract

Objectives
We investigated how veteran Head Start (HS) teachers cope with ever-changing policy environments. Focusing on two educators, one from a center in New York City and the other from a center in Chicago, we explored their experiences as exemplars of effective coping amidst shifting mandates, compliance demands, and the quest for professional autonomy. Our study’s dual focus on stressors and coping strategies offers mechanisms for policymakers and stakeholders to improve ECCE experiences for the workforce.

Theoretical Framework
Data were categorized and findings analyzed using Folkman and Moskowitz's (2004) revised Psychological Stress and Coping theory. We focused on how participants dealt with stressors and coping mechanisms employed. Through this lens, we explored how participants conceptualized policy mandates as stressors and how sociocultural and racial factors affected coping strategies.
Methods

Implementing a comparative case study methodology (Yin, 2014), we utilized iterative, deductive, and inductive coding, revealing patterns and themes. (See Figure 1). Participants (one male, Black teacher; one female, White teacher) worked in diverse neighborhoods in their respective cities, with an average experience of 25 years. (See Table 1 for participants’ center characteristics). They described their experiences surviving waves of policy mandates, offering much regarding their positions' challenges, joys, and incongruencies. The analysis included extensive triangulation, member checks, and peer coding protocols.
Results

We sought to compare and contrast the perspectives of two urban HS teachers. Despite similarities in age, teaching experience, and educational attainment, the two participants’ renderings of their lived experiences revealed differences focused on 1) types of stress with which they contended, 2) the agency they levered to push back against stressors, and 3) the types of coping skills they utilized to ameliorate stressors. Comparing and contrasting the participants’ stressors and coping strategies unearthed differences in appraisals and approaches, with meaning-focused coping sustaining the work of the Black, male participant, while preventative and future coping strategies supported the White, female participant. Our examination found two contrasting, but effective, mechanisms for “resisting” mandates which sustained teachers’ commitment to their centers and the children served. Importantly, these strategies were deeply rooted in the participants' racial and socio-cultural contexts, underscoring the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach to, for example, professional development/interventions regarding social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and/or stress-relief.

Significance
ECCE teachers experience stress (Brophy-Herb et al., 2023) as a result of compensation (Whitebook et al., 2014), lack of resources (McCarthy et al., 2021), managing children in the classroom context (Friedman-Krauss et al., 2014), and regulatory and mandate pressures which impact professional autonomy. This has resulted in massive turnover in the field (Bassok et al., 2021). Our study aimed to uplift those who have learned to rise above the mandates and thrive as educators in often inhospitable environments. We learned from their voices while recognizing how they illuminate our understanding of privilege/bias, supports, and system-wide issues. We challenge common narratives that target standardized and prescriptive solutions to reduce stress, seeking to advocate for policies that take into account the cultural and social needs of educators. Recommendations for next steps will be discussed.

Authors

• Maria Mavrides Calderon, Hunter College - CUNY

• Cynthia Arraya Wiltshire, University of Texas - El Paso