Early childhood educators play an essential role in providing child care for families and learning and development supports for young children, yet they have long faced challenges due to low wages. Recognizing this, the District of Columbia (DC) introduced the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund in 2022. This first-of-its-kind initiative aims to…

Children benefit from engagement in early education and care (ECE) programs that support their learning and development while also providing a point of connection to critical resources for their families. For children from economically disadvantaged families, the lack of access to high-quality ECE results in a persistent achievement and…

High-quality early childhood program options are in high demand not only because research has solidified the importance of early childhood experiences on human development but also because most households have all available adults participating in the labor force. Sustainability of the early care and education workforce is a common problem of…

This study's purpose was to elucidate the experiences of educators raising and responding to child-related concerns within Early Childhood Education and Care settings. Parent satisfaction with interactions, educators' ratings of how well interactions went, and educator confidence related to raising or responding to concerns, were examined.…

Our look at the well-being of California's early educators points to the need to consider work environments in early care and education (ECE) policy development. The learning environments of young children are also the work environments of the ECE workforce. Supportive and safe work environments that foster a respectful workplace climate can…

This descriptive associative study focused on work-related factors as determinants of self-efficacy and resilience among 58 purposively-sampled Child Development Workers (CDWs). It specifically aims to profile the CDWs based on various work-related variables, to determine their psychosocial needs, resources, levels of self-efficacy and resilience,…

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'…

Efforts to monitor and improve responsive caregiving for young children, because of its importance for child development, are part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Two brief observational measures of responsive caregiving have been developed and validated (Responsive Interactions for Learning-parent [RIFL-P] and educator…

The early childhood education care (ECEC) practitioner landscape is complex and encompasses many roles including center-based and school-based administrative, teaching, and support staff as well as home-based unregulated child care family child care (FCC) providers and home-based regulated (e.g., registered or licensed) FCC providers who…

Research has established the vital role administrators play in the success and sustainability of high-quality early childhood care and education (ECEC) programs. However, many center-based program administrators assume their leadership roles by being promoted from a teaching position. Consequently, while they may assume their administrative role…

Early childhood staff and family child care providers have stressful work lives, and turnover rates for early education staff hovers around 30% annually. Children in early education programs are suspended and expelled at rates estimated to be three times higher than children in K-12 programs. Research shows that teachers who are better able to…

The attitudes of those who work in human service fields are critical to the outcomes of the people they serve. Research suggests that factors such as overwork, poor interpersonal relationships with colleagues, dissatisfaction with pay, lack of employee involvement in decision making, and low levels of support from management contribute to negative…

With an average annual salary of just over $16,000, the work of early childhood education professionals is grossly undervalued and leads to high turnover rates. And yet, the quality and consistency of the care they provide to infants and young children has a lasting impact on their brain development and social-emotional well-being. This article…

This mixed-methods study explored (1) family day care (FDC) educators' confidence and capability to support children's mental health, and (2) assessed their own mental health and wellbeing. Descriptive analysis of the survey (n = 144) highlighted that most participants were in the normal range for mental health and wellbeing; however, identifying…

In the spring of 2020, as a result of the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many children dropped out of daycare and early education in Finland, and parents had to balance work and childcare for months. The wellbeing of families during the lockdown has been studied to some extent, but few studies have focused on children under school age.…