The Influence of Childcare Teachers' Empowerment and Work Environment on Professional Development

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the impact of child-care teachers’ empowerment and work environment on their professional development.Methods: A total of 579 daycare center teachers completed the Childcare Teachers’ Empowerment, Work Environment, Professional Development Scales. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 18.0. First, descriptive statistics were used to examine participants’ general characteristics. Second, item analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assess the instruments’ validity and structure. Third, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to verify internal consistency. Fourth, Pearson’s correlations, skewness, and kurtosis were analyzed to examine inter-variable relationships. Finally, multiple regression was used to analyze the effects of empowerment and work environment on professional development.Results: First, both childcare teachers’ empowerment and work environment significantly influenced the development of professionalism, and a comparison of the relative effects of both factors revealed that empowerment had a greater impact than work environment. Second, both empowerment and work environment significantly affected the subfactors of professionalism development, with empowerment exerting a greater influence than work environment.Conclusion: This study confirms that empowerment and work environment are crucial factors in enhancing the professional development of childcare teachers. Specifically, child-care teachers’ empowerment and work environment positively influence the development of professionalism and its subfactors, while empowerment exerts a greater effect than work environment. This implies that prioritizing the reinforcement of empowerment is an effective strategy for enhancing the professionalism of childcare teachers, with subsequent improvements in work environment constituting a desirable educational approach.