Research study

While a global understanding of teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to emerge, much remains to be understood about what early childhood teachers have felt and experienced with respect to their work and well-being. The present mixed-method study examined early care and education (ECE) teachers’ working conditions and physical, psychological, and professional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic using a national sample of 1434 ECE teachers in the U.S. We also explored differences in working conditions and well-being among in-person, online, and closed schools, given the unique challenges and risks that ECE teachers may have faced by teaching in these different modalities. From the results of an online survey, we found that in the early months of the pandemic, many ECE teachers faced stressful, challenging work environments. Some were teaching in new, foreign modes and formats, and those still teaching in person faced new challenges. We found many common issues and challenges related to psychological and physical well-being across the three teaching groups from the qualitative analysis, but a more complicated picture emerged from the quantitative analysis. After controlling for education and center type, we found that aspects of professional commitment were lower among those teachers teaching in person. Additionally, there were racial differences across several of our measures of well-being for teachers whose centers were closed. Upon closer examination of these findings via a moderation analysis with teacher modality, we found that Black and Hispanic teachers had higher levels of psychological well-being for some of our indicators when their centers were closed, yet these benefits were not present for Black and Hispanic teachers teaching in person.

Keywords: COVID-19 impact; early care and education; early childhood teachers; well-being; job demands; teaching modality; racial disparity

Kyong-Ah Kwon, Timothy G. Ford, Jessica Tsotsoros, Ken Randall, Adrien Malek-Lasater and Sun Geun Kim

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

2022

The goal of the research ‘Bulgaria grows with its children: Building professional competences for early childhood development’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘research on the early years workforce’ and ‘the research’) is to outline the main directions for improvement of the professionalization of the early years workforce on the basis of data – quantitative and qualitative – as well as to formulate recommendations for policy development in this area.

This summary shares the main results and recommendations derived from this research.

Dr. Natalia Mihaylova and included Dr. Ivanka Shalapatova, Elitsa Gerginova, Savelina Roussinova, and Dimitar Ivanchev

2021

This report which was issued by BRIDGE, Ilifa Labantwana, National ECD Alliance (NECDA), the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Smartstart and the South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD), is based on a survey of 3,952 ECD operators in South Africa conducted in mid-April 2020.

In line with government’s concern for lives and livelihoods, the organizations that issued the report believe that support needs to be offered to ECD operators owing to the circumstances they find themselves in due to COVID-19. The report constitues a proposal that requests government to appropriately assist ECD workforce during this precarious time of COVID-19.

After presenting the reasons why ECD operators should be accomondated in relief interventions and the impact on ECD operators' sustainability, caregivers and children, two possible interventions that the state can take to support the ECD sector during this time are presented: 1) Support to the ECD workforce to offset their loss in income and 2) Support to ECD operators due to loss of income from reduced fee payment.

BRIDGE, Ilifa Labantwana, National ECD Alliance (NECDA), Nelson Mandela Foundation, Smartstart, South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD)

2020

This paper reports on a study into the possible roles social media might play in teacher education in challenging contexts. It focused on the role of WhatsApp use and developing teacher resilience by forming teacher communities of practice. This work built on prior activity taking place in teacher associations in three sub-Saharan countries: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Rwanda and sought to develop both good practices in using WhatsApp for distance teacher development as well as engage in collaborative research. The paper shows that social media can play an important role in the professional development of teachers in remote and challenging contexts, but that we need to consider the workload and role of moderators and establish realistic expectations for groups, where there is limited access to the internet.

Gary Motteram and Susan Dawson

2019

It is paramount that the Education in Emergencies sector shares and learns from promising policies, practices, and research approaches for supporting teachers in crisis contexts. For this reason, this publication provides donors,policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and teachers with compelling examples of programs and practices that positively influence improvements in teachers’ work conditions and teaching practice. Authored by researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers working in education in emergencies, the 24 studies in this publication showcase promising practices in teacher management, professional development, and well-being from diverse regions and contexts.

The case studies are organized by three thematic areas:

• Teacher management (i.e. teacher recruitment, supply, compensation, supervision, certification, etc.)
• Teacher professional development (i.e. training modalities that include face-to-face training, coaching, mentoring, distance, and/or online learning etc. for either pre-service or in-service approaches; teacher collaboration; coordination across providers; collaboration with national teacher training institutes), and
• Teacher well-being (i.e. including social, emotional, physical, intellectual, financial, cultural, and spiritual well-being; interventions to support teacher well-being).

They present a snapshot of promising research methods, evidence-informed policy making, and innovative approaches to program design and implementation from diverse regional and crisis settings, as well as diverse organizations and teacher profiles.

Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

2019

The aim of this paper is to supports the ways countries may go about developing or strengthening their pre-primary workforce. There are multiple pathways to competent and effective workforce that may be relevant to different country context and that may combine different level of qualifications, with training and retention strategies in support of developing adapted career trajectories for pre-primary teachers. Our focus in this paper is to summarize the background evidence and research available in the area of pre-primary workforce development that can in turn support the outline of options and pathways to be developed further through in the next part of the work.

UNICEF/Jan Peeters, Ayça Alayli, Marilou Hyson and Hsiao-Chen Lin

2019

Informing and guiding the development of a Framework to Strengthen the Capacity of “Tipat Halav” nurses in Israel is a qualitative research study on behalf of Goshen Institute, with the overall objective to generate in-depth data that unveil effective processes and strategies which need to be in place in order to achieve a practice-change among Parent and Child Health ("Tipat Halav") nurses in Israel. Specifically, the study, which is part of a larger initiative pursued by Bernard Van Leer Foundation, the Rothschild Foundation Foundation and Israel’s Ministry of Health, aimed at mapping:

1. the strategies and processes that need to be in place in order to successfully achieve a practice-change among nurses in working with parents;
2. the common elements among successful programs;
3. the barriers and challenges in program implementation.

Interviews with 9 training providers and practitioners from across 6 countries, highlighted the complexity of the field and of nurses’ role and revealed the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes that effective nurses should possess. In addition, the interviews revealed the key challenges faced by the profession, the professionals and the training programs, as well as the success factors and recommendations about how challenges can be tackled. Research results highlight that practice-change is inseparably linked to the system in which practitioners operate and that in order for practice change to be achieved it is important to recognize the importance of the field as well as the uniqueness of this field. Thus, interviewees highlighted the need to focus on the social aspects of health and move beyond hospital-oriented practices and theory as well as the need for more innovative, practice-based approaches and experiential learning and for common standards of practice and common standards among training providers.  

2020

This report sheds a light on some of these disparities for the early years workforce. It includes a review of the relevant literature; an analysis of quantitative data covering a large representative sample of workers in England; and 40 interviews with early years practitioners, setting managers and local policy-makers. The most common barriers identified in all three strands of research were pay, work demands, certain demographic characteristics, training and the organisational climate of the early years provider. 

The study addresses the following research questions:

• How stable is the EY workforce in England?
• What are the main barriers to stability?
• How do these barriers vary by region?
• How do these barriers vary by provider type?

Social Mobility Commission

2020

In recent years, although there has been a sizable increase in take-up and provision of early years education in the UK, the sector has struggled to recruit and retain practitioners. This has been partly driven by limited development opportunities and low pay. This qualitative study is part of a multi-strand research project conducted in collaboration with the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The study sought to improve understanding of recruitment and retention challenges in the sector and explore perceptions of ‘quality’ within the workforce.

Methods
The research comprised two elements carried out concurrently:

• Provider case studies – 9 settings were purposively selected as case studies. Across these 23 in-depth interviews were conducted with managers and practitioners.
• Timeline interviews – 19 in-depth interviews tracing professional journeys into and through the sector were conducted with early years professionals

Jonah Bury, Molly Mayer, Fiona Gogescu, Tom Bristow, Fatima Husain

2020

Although much emphasis has been given to the professional development of ECEC professionals, limited attention has been given to the availability and quality of the professional development for home-based child care (HBCC) providers. Taking into account the unique needs this professional group has and with the ultimate aim to  ensure that HBCC providers receive the support they need to successfully foster learning and development for children in their care, early childhood education systems and agencies must explore new professional development methods that align more closely with HBCC providers’ needs. Some state agencies and home visiting model developers have begun to explore home visiting as a professional development approach to support HBCC providers. To explore the potential for scaling up this model of professional development for HBCC providers, Child Trends, with funding from the Foundation for Child Development (FCD), examined home visiting models and curricula, state- and federal-level policies related to early care and education and home visiting, funding streams to support early care and education and home visiting, and the perspectives of HBCC providers and parents.

The key conclusions of the report are:

• Implementing a home visiting model as a professional development strategy for HBCC requires coordination among multiple entities. 
• Expanding the evidence base for using home visiting to support HBCC may facilitate efforts to scale up the model.
• Improving professional development for HBCC providers may help improve quality of care for children and families who have been historically disadvantaged.
• Home visiting is a feasible strategy for supporting HBCC, but implementing it at scale in states and communities will require additional research, funding, and professional development system infrastructure.

The report concludes with suggestions for ways that organizations that fund research, technical assistance, and other activities to support HBCC providers can support this work.

Chrishana M. Lloyd, Maggie Kane, Deborah Seok, Claudia Vega

Child Trends

2019