FULL REFERENCE: Karaolis, O. and Little, C. (2024). On a joyful note: The practice of attending to joy for educator wellbeing. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 26, pp. 84-88.
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ABSTRACT: Do early childhood educators experience joy in their work with young children? Is early childhood education a joyful profession or is joy all but lost? These questions have guided a recent study by researchers from the University of Sydney, exploring the perception and concept of joy in early childhood education. Through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, including in depth interviews and observations, educators shared with us the presence of joy in their work with children and with one another. The findings suggest that educator wellbeing may be enhanced through the practice of joy and has implications for teaching practices and policy.
KEY WORDS: Early childhood educators, wellbeing, workplace, working conditions, emotion, professional learning, professional support.
INTRODUCTION
Early childhood education is often represented in the media as a sector in crisis, with many educators feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and unappreciated (Ng et al., 2023; Rogers et al., 2023). Studies in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States have shown how a lack of professional recognition, reflected in both lower financial compensation and the perceived view of their qualifications as being less than other teachers have impacted educators’ wellbeing, their attitude toward the value of their role and contributed to the critical teacher shortage (Dean, 2022; McDonald et al., 2018; Ng et al., 2023; Office of Early Childhood Education, 2024; Pangalangan et al., 2025).
In the light of such reported global adversity, our study sought to hear first-hand of the perspectives of educators. We wanted to hear their view of the current crisis, the personal and professional challenges they faced in their work but also explore, more positive factors that both drew them to the field initially but also kept them showing up and engaging in their work each day.
