engleski

Culture of the Educational Institution and the Professional Development of Preschool Teachers: Dynamism and Interdependence Towards the Improvement of Educational Practice

The theoretical part of the paper relates to the presentation of the complexity and dynamism of the institutional culture, in which its dimensions are presented in more detail and their interdependence in action is emphasized. The importance of professional development is highlighted as a way to improve the quality of institutional culture. The empirical part of the paper serves to gain insight into preschool teachers' personal perceptions of their own profession and professional development as dimensions of kindergarten culture. The following research questions have been formulated in order to achieve the set research goal: What is it about an individual's life history that determines his or her understanding of professional development within the culture of the institution in which he or she operates? How do preschool teachers describe the image of the child, the early education institution, and their role in the children's education? How do preschool teachers describe their professional development and what importance do they attach to it? How do preschool teachers describe relationships within the institution as one of the dimensions of kindergarten culture? Given the nature of the purpose of this research, a qualitative, narrative approach was used with elements of an ethnographic approach as it looks at participants in their natural environment and starts from their reference framework– personal stories [1, 2]. The professional development of preschool teachers and relationships within the early childhood education institution will be linked as two dimensions of institutional culture and will provide insight into their inseparability in research of educational practice [3, 4]. Five preschool teachers participated in this study, and semi- structured interviews were conducted for the purpose of data collection. In order to answer the research questions of this paper, the thematic analysis method was used in the analysis of data obtained through semi- structured interviews. An analysis of the obtained results is given through thematic networks, which will provide insight into the preschool teachers' understanding of professional development and other factors of the culture of the educational institution.

Culture of an educational institution ; Narrative approach ; Professional development ; Relationships within the institution

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