The importance of preschool teachers emotional intelligence

Odgajateljski posao uključuje svakodnevnu izloženost višestrukim interakcijama: s djecom različitih dobnih skupina i potreba, s roditeljima, s drugim djelatnicima vrtića. Osim toga, odgojitelji su i model, uzor koji djeca oponašaju u posebno osjetljivom razvojnom periodu. S obzirom na vrlo složene zahtjeve posla, odgojitelji mogu doživljavati veliku razinu stresa te sagorijevanje na poslu. Za uspješno obavljanje posla odgojitelja kao i prevenciju sagorijevanja važno je uspješno upravljanje emocijama što obuhvaća koncept emocionalne inteligencije. Stoga je cilj ovoga rada istražiti važnost emocionalne inteligencije za odgojitelja. Emocionalna inteligencija predstavlja sklop nekoliko sposobnosti, a to su: sposobnost prepoznavanja, razumijevanja i kontrole emocija. Stjecanje sposobnosti emocionalne inteligencije kod djece predškolske dobi važan je temelj za razvoj. Pregled istraživanja je pokazao da je poticanje razvoja emocionalne inteligencije koje uključuju komponentu emocionalnog znanja (prepoznavanje i imenovanje osjećaja) te komponentu kontrole emocija povezano s poboljšanjem emocionalnih i socijalnih kompetencija djece kao i smanjenjem agresivnog ponašanja. Osim što razvijena emocionalna inteligencija odgojitelja pomaže u kvalitetnijem poticanju i razvoju emocionalne inteligencije djece, visoko razvijena emocionalna inteligencija odgojitelja je važna i za dobrobit odgojitelja jer je povezana s manje sagorijevanja na poslu. Nadalje, istraživanja pokazuju da odgojitelji emocionalnu inteligenciju smatraju važnom, no sami nemaju dovoljno znanja o različitim komponentama emocionalne inteligencije. Postoje različiti modeli emocionalne inteligencije, no neki autori osporavaju važnost koncepta zbog preklapanja sa drugim konceptima i poteškoća u mjerenju. No, unatoč tome, usmjeravanje na razvoj prepoznavanja, razumijevanja i regulacije emocija od predškolske dobi, ima višestruke koristi i za djecu i odgojitelje kao i šire društveno okruženje.The preschool teachers' job involves daily exposure to multiple interactions: with children of different ages and needs, with parents, and other employees from kindergarten. In addition, preschool teachers' are also a model, a role model that children imitate in a very sensitive period in child development. Considering that preschool teachers' have very complex job requirements, they can experience high levels of stress and burnout at work. For successful burnout prevention is important to manage emotions, which encompasses the concept of emotional intelligence. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the importance of emotional intelligence for preschool teachers'. Emotional intelligence is a set of several abilities: the ability to recognize, understand and control emotions. Developing emotional intelligence in preschool is important foundation for child development. A review of research has shown that encouraging the development of emotional intelligence that includes a component of emotional knowledge (recognition and labeling of emotions) and an emotional control component is associated with improving children's emotional and social competencies as well as reducing aggressive behavior. Beside the fact that the developed emotional intelligence of preschool teachers' help them to encourage and develop children's emotional intelligence, highly developed emotional intelligence of preschool teachers' is also important for their well-being because emotional intelligence it is associated with less burnout at work. Furthermore, research shows that preschool teachers' consider that emotional intelligence is important, but they themselves don't have enough knowledge about different components of emotional intelligence. There are different models of emotional intelligence, but some authors dispute the importance of the concept because of overlap with other concepts and difficulties in measurement. Nevertheless, focusing on the development of recognizing, understanding and regulating emotions from preschool age has multiple benefits for children and preschool teachers' as well as the wider social environment