Organizational happiness of preschool teachers

Happiness is individuals' cognitive and emotional evaluation of their lives. One of the important factors affecting the happiness of people is business life. A person spends most of his/her life in the organization where he works, with his/her colleagues. Only business life may not make a person happy, but if a person is unhappy in his/her business life, he cannot experience real happiness in his/her private life. Organizational happiness is an important concept in pre-school education institutions. Because the organizational happiness of preschool teachers means more positive emotions, less negative emotions, and being able to realize their potential. These teachers interact more with younger children. Children in this age group are more emotionally affected by their teachers and generally choose their teachers as role models for them because they are out of the family and home environment for the first time, and they tend to imitate their behaviors by internalizing them. In this context, it can be said that "happy teachers, happy children" for the preschool education period. The aim of this research is to reveal the happiness perceptions and opinions of preschool teachers in the Aydın province Efeler district in the 2020-2021 academic year. The research population in the quantitative dimension of the research conducted with the mixed method; It consists of pre-school teachers who work in independent kindergartens, kindergartens within primary schools, and practice kindergartens within the scope of girls' vocational high schools in the 2020-2021 academic year in Aydın province Efeler district. The study group in the qualitative dimension of the research consists of six preschool teachers. Two of these teachers work in a private school, and four of them work in a public school. One of the teachers working in a private school works in a private primary school and the other in a private kindergarten. Teachers working in public schools consist of preschool teachers working in primary school, kindergarten, village primary school, and practice kindergarten class. In the research, qualitative data were collected and analyzed in order to explain the results obtained after the collection and analysis of quantitative data. In the collection of quantitative data; The Organizational Happiness Scale developed by Demo and Paschoal (2013) and adapted into Turkish by Arslan and Polat (2017) was used. In the study, a semistructured interview form developed by the researcher was used in the collection of qualitative data. Preschool teachers were asked 9 questions about organizational happiness. Statistical analyzes of quantitative data in the study were made using the non-parametric difference test, t test, and ANOVA in SPSS program; in the qualitative data analysis, content analysis was used. According to the results of the research, it was determined that the teachers' positive emotions dimension average score was moderate, negative emotions dimension average score was low, potential realization dimension average score was high, and general organizational happiness perception level was high. In the study, it was found that the organizational happiness levels of preschool teachers did not change according to the variables of marital status, educational status, tenure at school, and organizational structure; It was found that organizational happiness levels differed significantly according to the type of institution, age and professional seniority variables. On the other hand, working conditions and economic conditions do not make preschool teachers happy; It has been determined that being with children, touching their lives, seeing their progress and changes makes them happy. It has been determined that the happiness levels of preschool teachers are high, and this is due to their love for children, being with children, touching their lives, and seeing their progress. According to the findings, to make teachers feel that their thoughts are valuable to the school administration, provide support staff to the classes, reduce the number of class students, give preschool teachers the right to recess, and improve the economic conditions of preschool teachers can be listed among the suggestions that can be made to increase the organizational happiness levels of preschool teachers. KEY WORDS: Happiness, Preschool Teacher, Preschool, Organizational Happiness.