The Relationship between the Leadership of Child Care Center Director and the Empowerment of Child Care Teachers

Abstract

This study sought to determine the mediating effect of followership in the relationship between the leadership of child care center director and empowerment as perceived by child care teachers. Data were collected from 294 child care teachers in child care centers located in four cities labeled A, B and C through a structured questionnaire. To describe data the Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were computed. The level of child care center director's leadership which child care teacher perceived was 3.64 points in a scale of 5 points, child care teacher's empowerment was 3.50 points in a scale of 5 points and followership was 3.30 points in a scale of 5 points. COMMENT A positive correlations were found between leadership, empowerment and followership. Followership was shown to be a mediating variable between child care teachers' perceptions of leadership and empowerment. Furthermore, results also showed a strong relationship between the leadership of child-care center director and the child-care teachers' followership and empowerment, thus implying that the child-care teachers' followership is very important to increase the empowerment..