Developing Leaders Within Early Childhood: A Study on Reducing Turnover Through Job Satisfaction

There is a growing need in early childhood education (ECE) programs for leadership to be understood, grasped, and utilized as a tool. ECE programs are tasked with not only training new hires in classroom management skills, but also in training their staff to be leaders within their own classrooms. Administrators in ECE programs are in the business of training the future leaders of early childhood. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the relationship of the servant leadership of ECE supervisors to teacher job satisfaction and intent to stay at their current center in licensed Texas centers. The unavoidable difficulties ECE teachers face every day contribute to loss of job satisfaction and an increase of intent to quit. The results of this study imply that leaders have the ability to significantly influence teacher job satisfaction and intent to quit. There will be teachers that cannot be satisfied, and there will be teachers who will quit despite their leaders' best efforts; however, leaders can make a difference by putting into practice the servant leadership model and focusing on helping their teachers grow as both educators and individuals.