psychological capital

The education of young children constitutes the foundation of their cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural development. Teacher psychological capital, emotional intelligence, and work engagement are personal resources that may be associated with good teaching practices and child development as perceived by teachers. Using COR theory, this study examined the relationships among teacher psychological capital, emotional intelligence, work engagement, teaching effectiveness, and teacher-reported children's developmental outcomes of early childhood educators in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study employed a correlational research design. A sample of 202 early childhood educators was selected through a multistage sampling process, in which five children per teacher's classroom were selected, resulting in a total of 1,010 children rated using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The data for the study were gathered using the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K, and the EDI Teacher Version. The scores of five children per teacher were aggregated to measure teacher-level indicators of child developmental outcomes. Data analysis was done using Pearson product-moment correlation, multiple regression, and hierarchical multiple regression at the 0.05 level of significance. The results indicated significant positive correlations among the research variables. Psychological capital, emotional intelligence, and work engagement, both together and individually, made significant contributions to teaching effectiveness and teacher-rated children’s developmental outcomes. Teaching experience and school ownership also significantly moderated the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. This research therefore concludes that psychological capital, emotional intelligence, and work engagement are significant resources for teachers, contributing to teaching effectiveness and teacher-rated children’s developmental outcomes.

Objective This cross-sectional study (1) compared social support, psychological-capital dimensions, and both C-MLQ dimensions between students with and without visual impairments; and (2) among students with visual impairments, examined the association between social support and presence of meaning (C-MLQ-P) and tested the a priori hypothesized cross-sectional indirect association through hope. Self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism were examined exploratorily in descriptive/correlational and hierarchical-regression analyses. Methods Participants were 170 students with visual impairments and 294 students without visual impairments from a vocational college in China. They completed measures of social support, psychological capital, and meaning in life. Group differences were examined using MANCOVA with follow-up ANCOVAs. Among students with visual impairments, Pearson correlations and an exploratory hierarchical regression were conducted, and H3 was tested using a single cross-sectional indirect-effect model with social support (ASSS-Total) as the predictor, hope (PPQ-Hop) as the indirect variable, presence of meaning (C-MLQ-P) as the outcome, and age and sex as covariates. Results After adjustment for age and sex, students with visual impairments scored significantly lower on objective support, support utilization, self-efficacy, optimism, presence of meaning, and search for meaning than students without visual impairments, whereas no significant group differences were observed for subjective support, resilience, or hope. Among students with visual impairments, social support was positively associated with the presence of meaning (r = 0.56, p < 0.01). In the H3 model, the total association between social support and presence of meaning was 0.8912 (95% CI [0.6988, 1.0835]), the direct association was 0.3560 (95% CI [0.1655, 0.5465]), and the indirect association through hope was 0.5352 (BootSE = 0.0923, 95% bootstrap CI [0.3680, 0.7239]). Conclusions In this sample from a single Chinese vocational college, social support was positively associated with the presence of meaning, and a significant cross-sectional statistical indirect association was observed through hope. Because the data were cross-sectional, the observed indirect association does not establish temporal ordering or a causal mechanism. Longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to determine whether changes in social support precede changes in hope and presence of meaning.

Teacher attrition remains a persistent challenge, particularly among early-career educators, with language teachers facing distinct systemic barriers such as job insecurity, undervaluation, and emotional labour. While existing studies predominantly focus on in-service teachers, pre-service teacher attrition remains underexplored, limiting the development of effective interventions to support student-teachers. This study addresses this gap by examining the case of a pre-service teacher from China, who was enroled in a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages programme at a Malaysian university and later left teacher education for business studies. Adopting a longitudinal qualitative approach, we thematically and temporally analysed 13 semi-structured interviews conducted over nearly two years. The findings reveal that the participant’s departure was driven by a mismatch between teaching realities and initial aspirations, psychological strain and burnout, inadequate skill development and support, concerns over the recognition and transferability of the degree, and the relocation of career identity. These factors were contextualised through the interplay of human, social, structural, and psychological capital constraints, alongside relational, comparative, and agentic capital influences, manifesting through contradictory, socialising, dislocating, and evolutionary routines in careership. The study has significant implications for teacher education programmes and the broader educational community in fostering teacher retention and promoting a more sustainable teaching profession.

ترک شغل معلمی همچنان یک چالش پایدار است، به‌ویژه در میان معلمان اوایل دوران حرفه‌ای، و معلمان زبان با موانع نظام‌مند خاصی مانند ناامنی شغلی، کم‌ارزشی و کار عاطفی مواجه هستند. در حالی که پژوهش‌های موجود عمدتاً بر معلمان شاغل تمرکز دارند، ترک شغل معلمان پیش‌خدمت کمتر مورد بررسی قرار گرفته است که این امر توسعه مداخلات مؤثر برای حمایت از دانشجویان معلم را محدود می‌کند. این مطالعه به این خلأ می‌پردازد و مورد یک معلم پیش‌خدمت از چین را بررسی می‌کند که در برنامه آموزش زبان انگلیسی به سخنگویان زبان‌های دیگر (TESOL) در یک دانشگاه مالزی ثبت‌نام کرده بود و بعدها آموزش معلمی را به نفع مطالعات کسب‌وکار ترک کرد. با اتخاذ رویکرد کیفی طولی، سیزده مصاحبه نیمه‌ساختاریافته که طی تقریباً دو سال انجام شده بود، به‌صورت موضوعی و زمانی تحلیل شد. یافته‌ها نشان می‌دهد که ترک آموزش معلمی توسط شرکت‌کننده ناشی از عدم تطابق میان واقعیت‌های تدریس و آرمان‌های اولیه، فشار روانی و فرسودگی شغلی، توسعه ناکافی مهارت و حمایت، نگرانی درباره اعتبار و قابلیت انتقال مدرک، و جابه‌جایی هویت شغلی بوده است. این عوامل از طریق تعامل محدودیت‌های سرمایه انسانی، اجتماعی، ساختاری و روان‌شناختی، در کنار تأثیرات سرمایه رابطه‌ای، مقایسه‌ای و عاملیت، و بروز آن‌ها در روال‌های متناقض، اجتماعی‌کننده، جابه‌جا‌کننده و تکاملی در مسیر شغلی، زمینه‌مند شده‌اند. این مطالعه پیامدهای مهمی برای برنامه‌های آموزش معلمی و جامعه آموزشی گسترده‌تر در جهت تقویت نگهداشت معلمان و ترویج حرفه‌ای پایدارتر برای تدریس دارد.