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Early Childhood Educators’ Well-Being: An Updated Review of the Literature

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Abstract

Researchers are increasingly recognising the connections between early childhood educators’ well-being and their capacity for providing high quality education and care. The past five years have seen an intensification of research concerning early childhood educators’ well-being. However, fragmentation along conceptual, contextual and methodological lines makes it difficult to clearly identify the most effective focus for future research. The purpose of this article is to identify trends in, and implications of recent research concerned with educators’ well-being. Attention is given to ways recent studies address concerns raised in a review of earlier literature (Hall-Kenyon et al. in Early Child Educ J 42(3):153–162, 2014, doi:10.1007/s10643-013-0595-4), and what implications recent studies have for future research efforts concerned with educators’ well-being.

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Notes

  1. As explained in the search procedures, crossover with the era of literature reviewed by Hall-Kenyon et al. (2014) was done deliberately. There is no duplication of studies reviewed between this current review and that of Hall-Kenyon et al.

  2. It is possible that, despite searching numerous databases, there may be more studies concerned with educators’ well-being than have been covered in this review and in Hall-Kenyon et al.’s (2014). A search using the term ‘early childhood educators’ in journal articles published prior to 2012, or the inclusion of book chapters or dissertations could potentially expand the body of literature further.

  3. Two articles by Rentzou reported on data from the same study, therefore I have counted one study only for this author.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Professor Jennifer Sumsion for her generous advice and feedback on drafts of this article, as well as the helpful suggestions of the anonymous reviewers.

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Correspondence to Tamara Cumming.

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Cumming, T. Early Childhood Educators’ Well-Being: An Updated Review of the Literature. Early Childhood Educ J 45, 583–593 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-016-0818-6

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