Early Child Care Teachers’ Socialization Goals and Preferred Behavioral Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Abstract

This study investigated early child care teachers’ culturally shaped socialization goals and preferred behavioral strategies. The participants were 183 female teachers and trainees, 93 from Osnabrück, Germany, representing an urban Western context, which can be characterized by a primary cultural orientation toward psychological autonomy and a constructivist pedagogical approach; and 90 Cameroonian teachers, representing a rural non-Western context, which can be characterized by a primary cultural emphasis on hierarchical relatedness and a didactic approach of formal apprenticeship. The teachers answered questionnaires about their general socialization goals, professional educational goals, and preferred behavioral strategies. Overall, the different cultural orientations and pedagogical approaches were embodied in teachers’ general goals and preferred strategies. The German early child care teachers emphasized the value of psychological autonomy and child-centered methods most, whereas the Cameroonian teachers focused on hierarchical-relational socialization goals and apprenticeship-based teaching methods. However, results also showed discrepancies between general and professional goals of early child care teachers of the same cultural context, as well as differences with respect to teachers’ work experience, indicating further impact factors on early child care teachers’ goals besides the own cultural belief system.