A comparative study of happiness and lay conceptions of well-being among early childhood educators from South Korea and Vietnam

Both the concept of well-being and the work of early childhood educators are complex. To date, research concerning educators’ well-being has lacked a comprehensive conceptualisation that reflects these complexities. With increased research, policy and practice attention, a clearly articulated conceptualisation is now needed to guide empirical research and practical efforts to better support educators’ well-being. In this article, the authors draw on multidisciplinary perspectives to propose such a conceptualisation. Philosophical, psychological, physiological, organisational science and sociological sources are explored and critiqued for their relevance to early childhood educators’ well-being. Key aspects of these sources, and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, are brought together to argue for a morally anchored conceptualisation which acknowledges that educators’ well-being is indivisible from the contexts in which it is experienced.

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Occupational Well-Being in Beginning Early Childhood Educators of Hong Kong and the Prediction of Job-Related Factors: Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Approaches

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746123 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Jian-Bin Li ◽

An Yang ◽

Rui Zhang ◽

Tuen Yung Leung ◽

Zhouxing Li

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Regression Analysis ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Job Demands ◽

Working Hours ◽

Well Being ◽

Early Childhood Educators ◽

Job Resources ◽

Spring Semester ◽

Related Factors

The occupational well-being (OWB) of early childhood educators (ECEs) play a crucial role in their job performance, the development of a child, and the operation of early childhood education sectors. OWB of ECEs has been an increasing concern in recent years and this concern might be particularly salient for beginning ECEs given the multiple adaptive changes and challenges they encounter during the transition from training to teaching. However, research on the beginning ECEs’ OWB has been scarce. In this study, we employed both variable-centered and person-centered approaches to explore OWB and examined job demands and resources as predictors in 117 Hong Kong beginning ECEs (113 females, Mage = 21.71 years). They first reported job demands (i.e., class size, working hours, dealing with children with special education needs) and job resources (i.e., salary and job support) at the end of the first month of the fall semester upon working as in-service teachers. They then reported on four OWB variables (i.e., job satisfaction, work engagement, job stress, and job burnout) at the beginning of the spring semester. Results of the variable-centered analysis revealed that beginning ECEs reported medium or above-medium levels on the positive OWB indicators and medium or below-medium levels on the negative OWB indicators. Regression analysis found that despite some exceptions, job demands and job resources negatively (positively) and positively (negatively) predicted positive (negative) OWB indicators, respectively. Results of person-centered analysis suggested that the complex pattern of different OWB indicators could be categorized into two OWB profiles (medium well-being vs. relatively weak well-being – emotional exhaustion). Results of regression analysis showed that beginning ECEs with higher job demands were less likely, whereas those with more job resources were more likely, to be assigned to the medium well-being profile. These results inform which leverage points could be targeted to enhance a specific OWB indicator and identify who would be in dire need to enhance their OWB at the very beginning of their teaching career.

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A Brief Introduction to Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education in Turkish and Finnish Contexts

Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE) ◽

10.7577/njcie.3762 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 84-91

Author(s):

Sevcan Hakyemez-Paul

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Academic Success ◽

Parental Involvement ◽

Well Being ◽

Early Childhood Educators ◽

Point Of View ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Social And Emotional

Research conducted in recent decades has shown the importance of parental involvement in pupils’ well-being, learning, and future academic success as well as their cognitive, social, and emotional development. In addition to these benefits, parental involvement practices improve parental confidence and satisfaction as well as enriching educational programmes, enhancing the climate of educational institutions, and easing teachers’ work burden through responsibility-sharing and increased information flow. Although the significant role of parental involvement is well-supported by various studies, some research reveals that a gap continues to exist between the recommendations of related research and what is practised in educational institutions in reality. This gap explains in part the persistence of insufficient parental involvement practices. This paper, which is based on my public lektio aims to gain a better understanding of early childhood educators’ self-reported reasons for insufficient practices as well as identifying their parental involvement practices and their views in Finnish and Turkish contexts. The study is reported in four original articles, using the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from a representative sample of 287 early childhood educators from Helsinki and 225 early childhood educators from Ankara. Analysis of the results drew attention to the gap between theory and practice as well as the reasons behind this gap from the educators’ point of view. All the data material were discussed for each context, thus allowing for the highlighting of practical implications, which contributed not only to the research on parental involvement practices in different countries but also to the research on identifying factors affecting sufficient parental involvement. In addition to country-centred interpretations, the comparative aspect of this study contributes to existing research into world culture vs. local culture discussions.

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Early childhood educators’ solidarity and struggles for recognition

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/18369391211050165 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 183693912110501

Author(s):

Gloria Quinones ◽

Melissa Barnes ◽

Emily Berger

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Well Being ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Early Childhood Educators ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Education And Care ◽

Societal Level ◽

Emotional Demands ◽

Struggle For Recognition ◽

Depth Interviews

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators’ well-being and emotional demands during COVID require careful attention. This article explores the emotional demands experienced by ECEC educators in Australia during ongoing periods of lockdown. A survey was designed to gather quantitative and qualitative data and participants were asked to participate in in-depth interviews. Thirty participants were interviewed to explore personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic; of these, a selected sample of six participants is presented, drawing on Honneth’s (1995) as an analytical framework. The findings show ECEC educators’ struggle for recognition and how solidarity amongst educators emerged as a key response. Implications provide impetus for the active recognition of the early childhood profession. Solidarity as a new concept in ECEC includes the recognition of the early childhood profession at a societal level, recognising the significant professional work early childhood educators accomplish, and their struggle during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

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