Research On The Professional Image Of Preschool Teachers From The Perspective Of Stakeholders

In the 1980 s,the professionalization movement in the field of international teacher education emerged.The professional image as a fitting tool for teacher education image and professional image established a value orientation based on teacher professional development.At present,the professional development of preschool teachers in our country has gradually received the attention of the country and all walks of life.The "Professional Standards for Kindergarten Teachers(Trial)" and "Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of Teaching Staff in the New Era",and other policy documents have been issued successively,pointing out the direction for the professional development of kindergarten teachers.Therefore,in the current and future professional development of preschool teachers,we should pay attention to the connotation of preschool teachers’ professional image and understand the perceptions of preschool teachers’ professional image by different stakeholder groups.It helps to enhance the professional status of preschool teachers,stimulate teachers’ professional expectations,and promote the professionalization of teacher education.The research follows a qualitative research approach and selects three types of primary stakeholders that affect the establishment of professional image of preschool teachers,kindergarten principals and parents as the research objects.Firstly,open questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are given to the three groups;then use NVivo12 software to code and analyze the original data,summarize and refine the structure and elements of professional image,perform conditional coding and matrix coding query based on the coding results,and compare and analyze the views of the three types of interest groups.Finally,explore the professional image of preschool teachers established influencing factors,and propose strategies to improve professional image from multiple levels.The research founds that the professional image of preschool teachers mainly includes five core categories: preschool education concept,professional knowledge and competence,professional ethics,professional autonomy and professional growth.Among them,the concept of preschool education includes the concept of children and education;the professional knowledge and competence includes professional knowledge structure,education and teaching competence,communication and cooperation competence,reflective practice competence and observation and evaluation competence;professional ethics includes professional emotional attitude and professional behavior standards;professional autonomy includes education and teaching autonomy and participation decision-making autonomy;professional growth includes pre-employment professional training and post-employment training.Based on the identities of educators and direct providers of preschool education services,preschool teachers define their own professional image as lifelong learners who have professional qualities and love their jobs;based on the identities as managers and educators of preschool education services,kindergarten principals interpret teachers’ professional image as pioneers and innovators who are rich in educational wisdom and good at reflection and practice;based on the identities of the children’s guardian and preschool education service purchasers,parents anticipate teachers’ professional image as growth companions who have noble characters and pay attention to establishing an emotional connection.In addition,among the factors that influence the establishment of professional image of preschool teachers,research also founds that the professionalism of teachers themselves is the foundation of professional image establishment,the culture of kindergarten is a contributing factor to the establishment of professional image,and online media reports are an important means of professional image formation.In this regard,in order to enhance the professional image of preschool teachers,it is necessary to take the preschool teachers themselves as the main body,to realize the image and professional consciousness;take the cultural concept of the kindergarten as the core,shape the common vision of preschool teachers’ professional development;rely on online media reports to enhance the professionalism and social responsibility of the media.