Am I a Kindergarten Teacher? Examining the Role of School Context factors and Professional Development in the Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

The study examines the Role of School Contextual factors and Professional Development of Kindergarten teachers in the Mankessim Municipality of Ghana's Central Region. The pragmatist paradigm of knowledge acquisition guided the study, with the use of a concurrent mixed method design with identical samples for quantitative and qualitative data. The study's target population included all Kindergarten teachers in the Central Region of Ghana. As a result, the census sampling procedure was used to select 182 kindergarten teachers for the study. The main instrument for this study was a four-point Likert-type scale questionnaire with both closed and open-ended items. The closed-ended items were scored on a scale of 1-4 with options ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The quantitative data was analysed using means and standard deviation whiles the qualitative data were analysed thematically. After data was analysed and interpreted, the following conclusions were made: Contextual factors typically have an impact on how kindergarten teacher develops their professional identity. Secondly, Head teachers' leadership styles, the experiences of kindergarten teachers, and parents and society's perceptions of early childhood were the contextual factors that had the highest means and the greatest impact on kindergarten teachers' professional identities. Professional identity development for kindergarten teachers is impacted by opportunities for professional development like pursuing higher education, in-service training, and other opportunities.