Teacher Well-Being in Early Childhood

Gearing up for World Mental Health Day, this week’s review centers on early childhood teachers’ mental health and how programs can effectively improve their well-being.

Posted on October 6, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

Teacher Well-Being in Early Childhood: A Resource for Early Care and Education Professionals

Baum, Angela C. by Angela C. Baum and Kerrie L. Schnake Teachers College Press, 2024
208p bibl index, 9780807769133 $111.00, 9780807769126 $39.95, 9780807782101

Exacerbating the current teacher shortage at all grade levels is the departure of over 44 percent of all new teachers within five years of joining the profession. Baum (Univ. of South Carolina) and Schnake (South Carolina Infant Mental Health Association) have written a timely work focused on the well-being of those charged with educating young learners. Chapters examine early childhood teacher well-being, the importance of teacher well-being, how early childhood preparation programs treat well-being, exemplary teacher well-being programs and initiatives, the impact of race and gender on teacher well-being, and considerations for future policy and practice. Each chapter begins with a section listing the key issues treated therein, and then delve into subsections addressing the overarching topic explored by each chapter. This thoughtful organization makes the book ideal as either a class text or a resource for school leaders and practitioners. This book should interest teacher educators, administrators supporting practitioners, and classroom teachers themselves. A marvelous complement to Sherfinsky and Hayes’s Rooted in Belonging: Critical Place-Based Learning in Early Childhood and Elementary Teacher Education (2023), or Philibert’s Everyday Self-Care for Educators: Tools and Strategies for Well-Being (2019).

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: S. T. Schroth, Towson University
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Education
Choice Issue: Dec 2024

Enjoy this week’s review? Check out more reviews of related titles:

• Hispanic Leadership in Higher Education
• The Struggle You Can’t See: Experiences of Neurodivergent and Invisibly Disabled Students in Higher Education
• Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal
• We’re Not Ok: Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies

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