Rethinking early childhood workforce sustainability in the context of Australia's early childhood education and care reforms

Abstract

Early childhood workforce sustainability is an important issue, with implications for children, families and national productivity, as well as for educators themselves. Yet, in many national contexts, workforce challenges continue to undermine efforts to support sustainability. In this article, we evaluate efforts to address early childhood workforce challenges in the Australian context, where extensive early childhood reforms are underway. We argue that attempts to address workforce challenges in current policy initiatives are limited and may be insufficient for sustaining the early childhood workforce in the long term. Given the critical role that the early childhood workforce plays in Australia's early childhood reform agenda, we then consider how workforce sustainability could be rethought and other possibilities generated for addressing entrenched workforce challenges. We conclude by arguing that greater attention to the everyday politics of educators' practice, along with the forces shaping these milieux, may be a way of generating new possibilities for supporting workforce sustainability.

Low pay but still we stay: Retention in early childhood education and care

“…Although two of the three key retention factors -financial resources and leadership/management practices -are strongly implicated in turnover in ECEC, intrinsic satisfaction appears to be more closely linked with retention than turnover. That is, while educators who leave the sector are much more likely to cite low wages, demands for qualifications and poor working conditions as reasons for leaving (Cumming et al, 2015;Phillips et al, 2016;Productivity Commission, 2011), educators in this study strongly attributed their retention in ECEC to moral justifications, sense of achievement and emotional rewards. The qualitative analysis precluded precise empirical comparisons between decision-making pathways in terms of intentions to stay or leave.…”

“…Integral to success is raising public awareness of the value of early education and care and the contribution educators make to children's lifelong learning in order to widen community support for change, a key strategy within the Big Steps 'Value our Future' Campaign (United Voice, 2018). However, even under the current conditions of pay adversity and a reluctance by government to change the fundamental dimensions of delivery and funding of ECEC in Australia, a smaller-scale focus (Cumming et al, 2015) on leadership and management practices offers prospects for improving retention and echoes Fenech's (2013) call for more leadership development within the field. She points out that while the National Quality Framework requires an approved service provider to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced Educational Leader to lead the service's educational program, there is a lack of access to leadership development opportunities.…”

Beliefs and attributions: Insider accounts of men’s place in early childhood education and care

“…This study focuses on one potential barrier: the attitudes held by the female majority within the ECEC workforce, and how these attitudes incorporate broader societal narratives. Existing scholarship points to multiple factors that may serve as barriers to male participation, including poor pay (Cook et al, 2017), working conditions (Andrew, 2015; McDonald et al, 2018), low status (Tennhoff et al, 2015; Yulindrasari and Ujianti, 2018) and limited career pathways (Cumming et al, 2015; Pirard et al, 2015). While these factors are barriers to the workforce participation of all educators, regardless of their gender, negative societal attitudes target men more specifically (Bhana, 2016; Hancock, 2012; Moosa and Bhana, 2018; Thorpe et al, 2018).…”

Social and emotional learning in early childhood education and care: a public health perspective

“…ECEC programs face challenges to integrated and sustained SEL practices, including variations in ECEC quality across settings and inconsistent interaction and relationship quality for children to achieve optimal development 35-37 . Workforce challenges include incommensurate pay, 38 high levels of work‐related stress, 39 lack of professional status and public recognition of their professionalism, high rates of turnover, and limited career development opportunities 38 all impacting on an educator's ability to provide high‐quality and sustained SEL supports within their day‐to‐day practice. By applying public health principles to SEL intervention, the components and levels within the early learning system are more likely to be considered, therefore encouraging embedded practices and sustained benefits.…”