Looking out for teachers who are looking after our children: Examining teacher stressors and supports

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Young children’s early learning is tightly bound to the care, interactions, and instruction they receive from their early childhood education (ECE) teachers who too often make below a living wage and are seldom afforded the resources needed to meet their job demands. As a result, the ECE workforce experiences high rates of depression and burnout that directly and negatively impact children’s social-emotional and academic development. With regard to their day-to-day interactions with children, ECE teachers repeatedly request additional training to meet the needs of children they identify as emotionally or behaviorally challenging. In this symposium, we use mixed-methods approaches to better understand ECE teacher stress and burnout and explore the delivery of interventions that center teachers and their needs as a way to improve teachers’ and children’s experiences.

Paper 1 provides justification for the focus on teachers by examining sources of teacher stress and burnout and the connections between burnout and teachers’ perceptions of child behavior and rates of suspensions/expulsions. The next two papers report on interventions that focus squarely on teacher practice. Paper 2 presents pilot data from a trauma-informed care training that concentrates on provider self-care and its links to teacher practice. Paper 3 describes an early childhood mental health consultation program during its first year pilot, with a focus on grappling with tensions that arose in the implementation process. The papers will be discussed in relation to the need to build teacher capacity to promote child development and well-being.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Amanda P Williford, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

Discussant

• Celene Elizabeth Domitrovich, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Individual Presentations

• “So many people are depending on me”: Stressors and supports among Minnesota child care professionals - Presenting Author: Sophia Magro, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Christina Mondi-Rago, Boston Children's Hospital; Tripat K Rihal, Fordham University; Elizabeth A Carlson, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Educator stress and the use of trauma-informed practices in an urban Head Start center - Presenting Author: Jaclyn Russo, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Karen R. Gouze, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Carmen Holley, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Caroline Kerns, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Margaret Erin Meldrum, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

• Implementing an early childhood mental health consultation pilot in Virginia: Tensions and implications for scale-up - Presenting Author: Ann Partee, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Pilar Alamos, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Marissa Ann Bivona, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Kelsey Ann Clayback, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Jason Downer, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Sasha Miller-Marshall, University of Virginia; Kyra Parker, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Shubhi Sachdeva, University of Texas at Austin; Amanda P Williford, University of Virginia - Charlottesville