The Effect of the Director's Emotional Leadership Perceived by Early Childhood Teachers and the Teacher's Emotional Intelligence and Teaching Creativity on Teacher-Child Interaction

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the director's emotional leadership and teachers' emotional intelligence and teaching creativity on the teacher-child interaction. Methods A total of 330 early childhood teachers aged 3 to 5 working at daycare centers and kindergartens in Gwangju and Jeonnam were surveyed. The collected questionnaire was processed using the SPSS 24.0 program through Cronbach's a coefficient, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Results As a result of the study, it was found that the director's emotional leadership, teacher's emotional intelligence, and creativity were related to the interaction between teachers and young children, and the director's emotional leadership, early childhood teachers' emotional intelligence, and teaching creativity all affected the director's emotional leadership, early childhood teachers' emotional intelligence, and teaching creativity. Conclusions The significance of this study can be found in that the director's emotional leadership and teachers' emotional intelligence and teaching creativity are important variables that directly affect the teacher-infant interaction in the early childhood education field, and the results of this study confirmed that the director's emotional leadership and teachers' emotional intelligence positively affect the interaction with infants and that the teacher's teaching creativity also positively affects the interaction with infants.