Occupational well-being and teamwork in Finnish early childhood education

Abstract

The study examined Finnish early childhood education professionals’ (ECEP) (n = 107) experiences of occupational well-being and systems intelligent teamwork. Occupational well-being was measured with basic psychological job satisfaction, work engagement and burnout. In the analysis of variances by rank, the ECEPs’ had high work engagement, felt competent and relatedness in a working community. By contrast, their autonomy was low, and they felt exhausted, even though the overall burnout level was low. Extensive working experience increased work-related well-being and perceiving socioemotional systems in work. The ECE teachers had the highest work engagement, basic psychological need satisfaction and lowest burnout, but didn’t feel strongly competent in perceiving systemic interaction structures. On the other hand, the ECE social pedagogues felt most competent in systems intelligence behavior. The ECE childcarers valued the support of the systems intelligence team. In the cluster analysis, we identified two different clusters representing the level of occupational well-being and systems intelligence. The solution presented a connection between the ECE teachers with high work-related well-being and systems intelligence. We suggest that the multi-professional teamwork should be developed according to the ECEPs’ diverse educational background and that professional responsibilities be made more consistent with their education.

(Un)expected Emotions and Teamwork: Narratives of Early Childhood Education Practitioners

“…The narratives showed a contradiction between the expectations of teamwork and organizational practices. Working in Finnish ECEC involves close teamwork and effective discourse (see, e.g., Kumpulainen et al 2023;Ranta & Uusiautti 2022), but our research suggested that not every team is able to work in an environment that fosters teamwork.…”

“…Teams in Finnish ECEC are diverse, meaning members have different work experience, ways of working and interacting, and expertise based on their various educational backgrounds. While the importance of diversity on ECEC teams has been recognized (Kumpulainen et al 2023;Ranta & Uusiautti 2022), diversity may have negative effects on team performance if members have not spent enough time together (Chatman & Flynn 2001;Williams & Allen 2008). When team members have autonomy, trust each other, and feel safe being themselves, they are motivated to strive toward a common goal, thereby flourishing and driving change (Ranta & Uusiautti 2022;Williams & Allen 2008).…”

“…In this context, groups of children are usually led by a team of three practitioners with different educational backgrounds-teachers, nurses, and social pedagogists-and thus with diverse competences. ECEC practitioners collaborate in multiprofessional teams in emotionally demanding work environments (Kumpulainen et al 2023). As a result, ECEC teachers' emotions directly affect the quality of educational interactions and the emotional climate of the child group (Jeon et al 2018), and the impact of practitioners' emotions on workplace well-being, learning, and professional agency has been recognized (Benozzo & Colley 2012;Hökkä et al 2022).…”

“…The need to improve working conditions in ECEC has been identified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2017). Finnish ECEC is generally affected by the characteristics of modern working life, such as constant change, intensification, and a lack of qualified practitioners (Kangas et al 2022), as well as by constant emotional work, not only with the children but also with colleagues in multiprofessional teamwork (see Kumpulainen et al 2023;. ECEC work in Finland is also impacted by a lack of work organization practices and autonomy in the management of time resources in relation to pedagogical work, both of which challenge professionals' abilities to influence their own work (Hjelt et al 2023;Kumpulainen et al 2023).…”

“…Finnish ECEC is generally affected by the characteristics of modern working life, such as constant change, intensification, and a lack of qualified practitioners (Kangas et al 2022), as well as by constant emotional work, not only with the children but also with colleagues in multiprofessional teamwork (see Kumpulainen et al 2023;. ECEC work in Finland is also impacted by a lack of work organization practices and autonomy in the management of time resources in relation to pedagogical work, both of which challenge professionals' abilities to influence their own work (Hjelt et al 2023;Kumpulainen et al 2023). Thus, such challenging conditions are perceived as making it difficult for professionals to do their work to a high standard in accordance with their professional values (Kangas et al 2022).…”