Loyalty refers to the quality and degree of faithfulness and commitment to someone or an activity. Regarding early childhood education, loyalty refers to a teacher's ability to commit to the profession. This belief has and continues to influence my professional work in various ways, including enhanced learners' satisfaction, teamwork, and improved development of inter-professional relationships. Sanford (2017) note that teachers who embrace loyalty are likelier to have good social relationships with colleagues and administration. Effective social interprofessional relationship results in enhanced information sharing, decision-making, and meeting core learning objectives.

Therefore, as an educator, I need to better my loyalty to impact my future professional development positively. In addition, loyalty influences my professional work by enhancing the learners' satisfaction. Being a loyal teacher is a stepping stone to rapport building and developing a trustable relationship with learners. Learners who perceive a teacher as loyal develop automatic trust, respect, and obedience to the teacher (Sanford, 2017). Therefore, I need to maintain this belief.

Besides loyalty influencing my professional work and the development of my professional identity, the core belief also has an implication on advocacy for positive social change for young children, families, and the early childhood field. Ways in which loyalty impacts positive social change incorporate enhanced collaboration and family engagement, and openness. Being a loyal teacher makes the learners' parents develop automatic trust and dependence (Sanford, 2017). The aftermath of parental confidence in the teacher is an ease in participation and implementation of social change. A similar outcome is anticipated among children since they also develop loyalty to their teachers and are more willing to participate in change promotion activities. In early childhood, l believe loyalty results in the hastened implementation of change policies. As a loyal advocate, stakeholders involved in the advocacy are more likely to give a listening ear than when I am not loyal individual.

Trust is the belief and confidence in an individual's organization's reliability, integrity, and fairness. It is a key element that determines the extent of interdependence and relations between an individual and the other or between groups of people. As an early childhood educator working with colleagues to ensure learners meet their academic growth and development, I believe trust is essential. This belief has influenced and shaped my professional practice and goals in various approaches, including improved teamwork and collaboration, enhanced productivity, decision-making, and openness to change. The influence of trust on professional development and identity is evidenced in a review by Vangrieken et al. (2017), which analyzed the relationship between trust, professional identity, and professional development. The review findings illustrate that professional identity and development were directly proportional to an individual's trust level. Teachers with higher levels of trust in themselves were identified to have a faster professional identity and development rate. Therefore, I should maintain a higher level of trust with colleagues to achieve maximal professional identity and development.

Trust also significantly influences advocacy for positive social change for young children, families, and the early childhood field. Vangrieken et al. (2017) note that trust promotes advocacy for positive change by allowing for easy teachers entry and engagement with the community, developing communities and families loyalty to the teachers, and promoting openness. Teacher engagement with communities and families fosters advocacy for change as the teachers identify areas for advocacy and gain community support toward implementing the desired change. Additionally, the openness that occurs secondary to trust promotes advocacy as the children, families, communities, and colleague educators would bring different insights into the advocacy issues. Collaborative participation of the individuals results in the implementation of informed social change actions, and sustainability ensues.

Sanford, N. (2017). Self and society: Social change and individual development. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315129112/self-society-nevitt-sanford

Vangrieken, K., Meredith, C., Packer, T., & Kyndt, E. (2017). Teacher communities as a context for professional development: A systematic review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 61, 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.10.001