Emotion Coaching Practice With the Whole School Approach “Emotionally Friendly Kindergarten Transformation Program” Process Analysis

Abstract

The preschool period must be the starting point for the same attitude among all education stakeholders to achieve sustainable improvement and permanent change. Undoubtedly, a supportive classroom environment with a bond and an emotion-oriented approach contributes to children’s intellectual and personal development. Emotion coaching is a relational behavior management approach that enables people/children to realize the emotions they are experiencing. The whole school approach facilitates the development of a common language between stakeholders. There is a need for studies that address emotion coaching and the whole approach together in early childhood. This study examined stakeholders’ perspectives on implementing the Emotion-Friendly Kindergarten Transformation Program (EFKTP), an emotion coaching program based on a whole school approach. Based on the case study method, the study consists of 34 individuals, including all stakeholders. The data were collected through focus group interviews and semistructured interviews with stakeholders regarding the eight stages of the EFKTP program. Descriptive and content analysis methods were used to evaluate the program’s overall impact. The results suggest that school applications of the program enhance children’s emotional repertoire and behavioral control, home activities enhance communication and relationships between children and their families, and emotion coaching training to stakeholders improves self-efficacy perceptions among teachers and parents.