Research study

Understanding the best ways to support the well-being of the child care and early education (CCEE) workforce is important for states and CCEE programs. CCEE teachers and caregivers have demanding jobs and receive low compensation for their work—a combination that often negatively affects their well-being. Research has linked CCEE workforce well-being to several important outcomes, including staff turnover, responsiveness to children’s needs, and collaborations with families. CCEE teachers and caregivers also have roles outside of their profession, and deserve to be well for themselves and their families. Research on CCEE teacher and caregiver well-being points to the effects they can experience personally, including high levels of stress, low access to food, unstable housing, and putting off medical care because of cost.

Historically, research on CCEE workforce well-being has primarily focused on poor mental health (specifically depressive symptoms) and its link to responsive caregiving. This research has focused on disparities in well-being among different types of teachers and caregivers, as well as disparities between the CCEE workforce and other sectors. Only in the past decade have researchers focused on a more holistic definition of well-being, on ways to improve well-being, and on tailored strategies that may be needed to improve CCEE workforce well-being across different types of settings.

Mallory Warner and Annie Davis Schoch

Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation - U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

2024

This 2024 study highlights the importance of maintaining a stable early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce, essential for enabling family employment and positive child outcomes. Globally, retaining qualified early childhood educators remains a challenge. This research explores the factors influencing educators' and center directors' intentions to leave the profession, using survey responses from 713 professionals and detailed feedback from 97 participants.

Key findings include:

• One in three professionals intend to leave the sector, with over half planning to do so within five years.
• Emotional exhaustion is a significant predictor of this intention.
• For center directors, higher personal accomplishment and older age increase the likelihood of intending to leave.
• For educators, lower satisfaction with pay, benefits, and lower qualification levels are critical factors.

Qualitative data reveal that feeling undervalued, increased demands with inadequate support, and workforce issues drive the intention to leave. Addressing these factors through targeted interventions could improve workforce stability. This study is particularly relevant in Australia, where supporting the ECEC workforce is a current political focus, presenting an opportunity for meaningful changes.

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

2024

This report offers an analysis of the application of the ILO (2014) Policy Guidelines on the Promotion of Decent Work for ECE Personnel and provides recommendations for review. It addresses key themes, including the voluntary nature of a commitment level among state and non-state stakeholders, challenges in holding governments accountable without legal obligations, and the difficulties in establishing a standardised and workable monitoring framework.

The report highlights the significance of the ILO Guidelines in promoting decent work for Early Childhood Personnel (ECP), while acknowledging the need to address challenges to ensure universal implementation and accountability. The research emphasizes the ongoing global efforts to assess and advance the progress of the ILO Guidelines by Education International, which aligns with the 10th anniversary of promoting decent work for ECP.

Colette Byrne, Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, Carolina Semmoloni, Mathias Urban

Education International

2024

An increasing number of children are growing up in environments in which more than one language is spoken. For many of these children, early childhood education and care (ECEC) is often their first contact with the majority language of the country in which they are growing up. This situation adds to the crucial role that ECEC professionals play in children’s education.

This report aims to formulate research- and practice-based policy recommendations for high-quality continuous professional development (CPD) to support ECEC professionals working with multilingual children and families.

This report is built upon two sources of secondary data: 1) a literature review on multilingualism, CPD, ECEC and diversity, which draws on scientific research articles, international reviews and reports of relevant European projects (presented in Chapter 2); 2) two case studies: one on Griffbereit and Rucksack KiTa in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and another on Elmer Childcare services in Brussels, Belgium (presented in Chapter 3). Chapter 4 of the report provides general recommendations, while Chapter 5 explores how the report’s key findings and recommendations apply to CPD relating to working with multilingual children and families with a refugee background.

Lisandre Bergeron-Morin, Brecht Peleman, Hester Hulpia

2023

Early childhood home visiting programs support pregnant women and families with young children so they can be healthy, safe, and better prepared to reach their goals. The success of these programs is dependent upon recruiting and retaining a skilled, committed, and satisfied workforce. This brief summarizes findings from the Home Visiting Career Trajectories study—a national study of the home visiting workforce—on workplace factors in recruiting and retaining qualified staff.

This document investigates the characteristics of home visitors and their supervisors, the characteristics of home visiting jobs, and the factors that contribute to the recruitment and retention of home visitors. It provides information on the career pathways and work experiences of home visitors and their supervisors to support Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) awardees, local programs, and home visiting model developers in recruiting, training, and retaining qualified staff. The document presents the findings of a national descriptive study of the home visiting workforce in local agencies receiving MIECHV funding, with a focus on the workplace factors that relate to home visitor recruitment and retention.

Sarah Benatar, Amelia Coffey, and Heather Sandstrom

2020

Reflective supervision is a form of supervision that supports home visiting implementation quality by helping providers develop critical competencies and manage powerful emotions that often accompany the work. Sessions focus on the complexity and importance of all relationships (e.g., supervisor-supervisee; provider-client; parent-child) over administrative compliance or performance evaluation. Quality reflective supervision delivered over time may lead to improvements in service quality, staff retention, and family outcomes. Most evidence-based home visiting models encourage the use of reflective supervision, as does the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program.

Despite this general acceptance, home visiting lacks a clear, agreed-upon definition of reflective supervision and an understanding of key elements and best practices. The field also lacks evidence that reflective supervision achieves its intended outcomes, and an understanding of the elements that work best for specific contexts and supervisees. The Supporting and Strengthening the Home Visiting Workforce project seeks to identify gaps in knowledge about reflective supervision and home visitor professional well-being and to develop a conceptual model for each to support future research, policy, and practice.

Allison West and Patricia Madariaga, Johns Hopkins University Mariel Sparr, James Bell Associates

2022

The work of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals is the major driver of the quality of an ECEC system. As evidence accumulates on the strong benefits of investing in early education, countries need effective policies to attract, maintain and retain a highly skilled workforce in the sector. This report looks at the makeup of the early childhood education and care workforce across countries, assessing how initial preparation programs compare across different systems, what types of in-service training and informal learning activities help staff to upgrade their skills, and what staff say about their working conditions, as well as identifying policies that can reduce staff stress levels and increase well-being at work. The report also looks at which leadership and managerial practices in ECEC centers contribute to improving the skills, working conditions and working methods of staff. The OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS Starting Strong) is the first international survey that focuses on the early childhood education and care workforce. It offers an opportunity to learn about the characteristics of ECEC staff and center leaders, their practices at work, and their views on the profession and the sector.

This second volume of findings, Building a High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce, examines factors that influence the skills development of ECEC professionals, their working conditions and well-being at work, and leadership in ECEC centers.

OECD

2020

The experience of children under age three with early childhood education and care (ECEC) is crucial for their learning, development and well-being and for parents’ return to work. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of ECEC for the youngest children, little is known about this sector. The OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey  (TALIS Starting Strong) is the first international survey that focuses on the ECEC workforce. It asks staff and leaders about themselves and their settings, including the practices they use with children and their views on the sector.

This thematic report focusses on ECEC for children under age three, an option of the Survey in which four countries (Denmark, Germany, Israel and Norway) participated. The report answers many questions that are important for parents, actors in the field, and policymakers.

OECD

2020

European Commission identified staff professionalization as one of the key issues for the ECEC field. In many countries, part of the workforce is represented by low-qualified ECEC assistants. Studies have shown that assistants have fewer chances for qualification and professional development and are not taken into account in policy documents. Improving the competences of all staff (core practitioners and assistants) would improve the services’ quality, which would in turn help eliminate barriers in front of families in using ECEC services. This analytical report emphasizes the role of investing in the professionalization of assistants in quality improvement in ECEC and presents findings from the analysis of ECEC assistants 15 European countries. Lastly, the report provides recommendations on how to develop coherent pathways toward qualification and continuous professional development for ECEC assistants accompanied by country examples.

Peeters, J.; Sharmahd, J.; Budginaitė I.,

2016

The early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce plays a critical role in the quality of provision. There has been growing interest by policymakers at the local and international levels and ample research has shown a clear consensus about the importance of quality in ECEC. This research article focuses on the role of assistants in ECEC based on a holistic conceptualization of education and care and examines 15 European country profiles. The authors argue that the concept of schoolification might lead to a division between education and care resulting from the divided roles between assistants and core practitioners. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for practice and policy.

Van Laere, K., Peeters, J., & Vandenbroeck, M.

2012