TY - JOUR
T1 - Early childhood educators’ well-being, work environments and ‘quality’
T2 - Possibilities for changing policy and practice
AU - Cumming, Tamara
AU - Wong, Sandie
AU - Logan, Helen
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - A child’s right to high quality education not only relies on a competent and skilled workforce, but one in which educators are well. Supporting a well workforce requires governments, organisations and educators to attend to work environment quality. This attention needs be based on sound, relevant evidence. In this paper we contribute evidence of educators’ well-being from the survey component of an Australian study with 73 participants. We map results against international guidelines, and policy openings in Australia’s National Quality Standard to understand how educators’ work environments are affecting their well-being. We conclude that existing policies on quality in early childhood education in Australia attend to only some features of work environments, with a notable absence of attention to supporting educators in the relational complexities of their work. To enable educators to provide high quality education and care, greater attention is needed by organisations and governments to what quality work environments might look like.
AB - A child’s right to high quality education not only relies on a competent and skilled workforce, but one in which educators are well. Supporting a well workforce requires governments, organisations and educators to attend to work environment quality. This attention needs be based on sound, relevant evidence. In this paper we contribute evidence of educators’ well-being from the survey component of an Australian study with 73 participants. We map results against international guidelines, and policy openings in Australia’s National Quality Standard to understand how educators’ work environments are affecting their well-being. We conclude that existing policies on quality in early childhood education in Australia attend to only some features of work environments, with a notable absence of attention to supporting educators in the relational complexities of their work. To enable educators to provide high quality education and care, greater attention is needed by organisations and governments to what quality work environments might look like.
KW - Early childhood education
KW - early childhood educators
KW - early childhood teachers
KW - well-being
U2 - 10.1177/1836939120979064
DO - 10.1177/1836939120979064
M3 - Article
SN - 1836-9391
VL - 46
SP - 50
EP - 65
JO - Australasian Journal of Early Childhood
JF - Australasian Journal of Early Childhood
IS - 1
ER -