scholarly journals Romance or Reality?: Examining Burnout in early Childhood Teachers

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Noble ◽  
Kym Macfarlane
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Attrition ◽  
Secondary School Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Year ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Primary And Secondary School

Relatively high rates of teacher attrition have been consistently identified as a major issue for the teaching profession over several decades. As a result, there has been a growing interest in the wellbeing of teachers across the entire education sector. Recent research by Noble, Goddard and O'Brien (2003) has found that early childhood teachers, on average, maintained significantly lower burnout levels than did other teachers over their first year of service. However, at the beginning of their second year of service early childhood teachers reported significant increases in burnout, in comparison to primary and secondary school teachers who reported more gradual and consistent increases over the initial stages of their careers. The authors of this paper explore these significant statistics and call for further research to be conducted into how early career burnout develops in early childhood teachers. Such an exploration may assist in the reduction of burnout across the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector.

scholarly journals What Keeps Early Childhood Teachers Working in Long Day Care?

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon McKinlay ◽  
Susan Irvine ◽  
Ann Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Constructivist Approaches

RETAINING EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS in long day care (LDC) is a pressing challenge for Australia's reform agenda in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Case study research with five early childhood teachers in LDC revealed individual and contextual factors that enabled and challenged the teachers to stay in LDC. Drawing on social constructivist approaches, the research contributes empirically based insights that support the recruitment and retention of early childhood teachers in LDC.

scholarly journals Social studies in early childhood education and care: A scoping review focusing on diversity

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 312-324
Author(s):  
Anette Ringen Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Educational Challenge ◽  
Education And Care

Currently, little research exists on social studies within the context of Norwegian early childhood education and care, and how early childhood teachers work to familiarise children with social studies contexts . This article is a scoping literature review offering a preliminary research agenda. Its aim is to explore the ways in which the early childhood teacher can work to ensure young learners’ social studies education with a specific focus on cultural diversity and subsequent educational challenges. The research question guiding the article asks: How does previous educational research show that early childhood teachers can use social studies to address diversity with and amongst children? The analysis uncovers 4 scopes of research across 26 international and national studies. Previous research has contributed with knowledge in the areas of cultural diversity, anti-discrimination, human rights, and community and society as a means to familiarise children with diversity and related matters. Each scope addresses the knowledge status and opportunities for future research within each area. Based on the analysis, the author discusses the critical educational challenge of a paradox in familiarising children with diversity, where the early childhood teacher risks conveying biased information and stereotypical views, and highlighting cultures in discriminatory ways.

Teachers as Brokers

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 622-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Mentha ◽  
Amelia Church ◽  
Jane Page
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Education And Care

This paper explores a small sample of Australian early childhood teachers’ perceptions of the rights-based conceptsparticipationandagency. We recognise and reconcile some of the perceived tensions between the debates on participation and protection and how these play out in the teaching and learning spaces of early childhood education. Teachers’ reflections on these concepts in relation to practice are highly significant to the field, connecting the concepts of children’s rights to the reality of everyday practices in early childhood education and care settings. As brokers or conduits to participation in early learning environments, a better understanding of teacher’s professional stance enables opportunities for young children to be better heard. An understanding of complexities and relatedness within these settings, can lead to more consistent and clear policy implementation.

Examining early childhood teachers’ attitudes and responses to superhero play

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-182
Author(s):  
Megan Wiwatowski ◽  
Jane Page ◽  
Sarah Young
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Teachers Attitudes

Research highlights that early childhood teachers (ECTs) hold varied opinions on the value of superhero play (SP) to young children’s learning and development. This study sought to investigate how ECTs in Victoria are responding to superhero play, and to examine the beliefs that underpin their responses. Interviews were conducted with eight ECTs from the Bayside area in Melbourne. The study revealed that while the majority of the teachers interviewed responded to children’s superhero play in a variety of ways, there were a number of barriers to supporting superhero play in early childhood education and care settings. This paper concludes by identifying the value of ECTs engaging in critical reflection to ensure that their responses to superhero play are based on professional knowledge that is informed by theory and research.

Problematising early childhood teacher registration as a mechanism to improve quality early childhood education and care

2020 ◽  
pp. 146394911989602
Author(s):  
Marianne Fenech ◽  
Samantha King
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Teacher Professionalism ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
National Review ◽  
Education And Care

Regulatory drivers of teacher quality and teacher professionalism are increasingly being utilised in Australia and internationally to improve children’s outcomes. In the context of a recent national review on teacher registration, this article reports on findings from a small-scale study that investigated three early childhood teachers’ perceptions of teacher registration in New South Wales, Australia. The participants rejected discursive truths about the need for and benefits of teacher registration, associating this relatively new mechanism of teacher accountability as a threat to teachers’ professional practice and job satisfaction, and to centres’ provision of quality early childhood education. The findings problematise a discourse of teacher professionalism made enticing by a vow to bring early childhood teachers in from the margins of the educator sector.

Employers’ perspectives of how well prepared early childhood teacher graduates are to work in early childhood education and care services

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-227
Author(s):  
Wendy Boyd ◽  
Sandie Wong ◽  
Marianne Fenech ◽  
Linda Mahony ◽  
Jane Warren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Child Outcomes ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
National Quality ◽  
Education And Care

With an unprecedented number of children in early childhood education and care in Australia, demand for early childhood teachers is increasing. This demand is in the context of recognition of the importance of the early years and increasing requirements for more highly qualified early childhood teachers under the National Quality Framework. Increasingly, evidence shows the value-added difference of university-qualified teachers to child outcomes. Within Australia there are multiple ways to become an early childhood teacher. Three common approaches are a 4-year teaching degree to teach children aged birth to 5 years, children aged birth to 8 years, or children aged birth to 12 years. There is, however, no evidence of how effective these degree programmes are. This paper presents the perspectives of 19 employers of early childhood teachers in New South Wales regarding how well prepared early childhood teacher graduates are to work in the early childhood sector in Australia. Although participants noted the strengths of new graduate early childhood teachers, they also identified several areas in which they were less well prepared to teach in the early years.

scholarly journals Kultur som mangfold og enfold i barnehagen

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olav Kasin
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Practical Work ◽  
First Year ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
A Value ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Cultural diversity and cultural naivete in early childhood education and care: In this article I focus on cultural diversity as it is presented in the Norwegian Framework Plan for the Content and Tasks of Kindergartens. The concept Kindergarten does not refer to first year in school as in USA, but refer to any kind of early childhood education and care institutions. I argue that the understanding and interpretation of culture is too narrow in this plan. It presents culture mainly as a value and as something that should be made visible and carried out in practical work in the kindergartens. I argue that this understanding of culture and cultural diversity can lead to stereotype understanding of children - children as representatives for cultural diversity. Children should only be understood as representatives of themselves and not as some kind of cultural "marionettes". As an alternative to this way of understanding culture, I present the term as way of analyzing social life, as a way of thinking, and also as different kinds of practice, something that characterize activities between people, not primarily as qualities within people.

Professional identity in the infant room

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Davis ◽  
Rosemary Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Professional Recognition ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Infant Learning

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has shown that there is a steady growth in the numbers of infants attending early childhood services. Despite growing interest in infant learning, recognition of infant teachers as specialised professionals is limited. This research aims to explore the role of early childhood teachers working with infants in early childhood education and care settings through the following questions: (1) What are the teachers’ reported reflections about their role in working with infants? (2) How does this help shape their professional identity? Visual methodologies alongside narrative inquiry were used to capture the lived experiences of infants and their teachers in early childhood education settings. Thematic analysis was conducted within a constructivist paradigm utilising descriptive codes based on Molla and Nolan’s classes of professional functionings. Findings showed infant teachers’ pedagogical work with infants to be subtle, based on specialised understandings of individual children and this age group. The teachers were self-aware, making purposeful pedagogical decisions based on knowledge and experience. Nevertheless, communicating this work with parents, untrained staff and employers remains a challenge. Professional recognition and identity should be reconceptualised with wider recognition of the specialisation of infant teachers including changes in policy and remuneration.

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