2019 Volume 57 Issue 1 Pages 29-42
This study examined an early childhood teacher’s decision making when children expressed negative emotions under different types of interventions. Cases of four-year-old children’s negative emotions were collected through participant observation. Subsequently, representative cases were chosen and the teacher’s decision making was evaluated through interviews. The findings suggested that the teacher valued children’s negative emotions from a medium - to long-term perspective regardless of the type of intervention. However, the teacher avoided direct intervention in situations where a child’s feelings were different from others, and she respected each child’s feelings equally. Moreover, the teacher proactively intervened with children in order to foster their ability to understand and express emotions, whereas she avoided intervention with children when she intended to help them regulate their emotions on their own. These results indicate a relationship between the strength of the teacher’s intention to nurture children and the type of intervention.
