Self-efficacy and transformed practice in family child care
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Family child care represents a significant number of the early childhood programs available to families, with this type of care representing almost one quarter of the child care community (Laughlin, 2013). With increased attention and funding focusing on early childhood over recent years, systems and strategies have begun to focus more on family child care providers and ways to support their professional growth and enhance program quality. Using a participatory research design, the intent of this longitudinal, qualitative study was to examine evidence of changes in family child care providers’ sense of self-efficacy, as identified by Bandura’s model of self- efficacy (1977), and evidence of transformed practice. Within this study, transformed practice was defined as sustainable changes in thinking and practice inspired by learning experiences in which providers question deeply held beliefs and ideals within the context of their own program. Three family child care providers who were part of a Star Plus cohort in which the researcher was also assigned as their technical assistant participated. Providers were interviewed, along with analysis of data recorded in the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) database documenting their experiences within the QRIS over a three-year period. Audio recordings of Community of Practice meetings were also accessed in order to provide more detail into providers’ experiences and a focus group was conducted as a member check to discuss initial findings with providers. Evidence of changes in self-efficacy was found in three domains: business owner/administrator self-efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, and resource and advocate self-efficacy, along with strong evidence of transformed practice in categories that paralleled these three domains. Findings also suggested an additional domain in self-efficacy as a learner.