Early Childhood Education Workforce Research Articles

The Early Childhood Socio-Emotional and Behavior Regulation Intervention Specialist (EC-SEBRIS) training model: a crossroad of mental health and early childhood education

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present the Early Childhood-Socio-Emotional and Behavior Regulation Intervention Specialist (EC-SEBRIS) Certificate Program model integrating knowledge and practice. Coursework, videotaping, on-site coaching, and the reflective process facilitate the application of knowledge through the integration of theory and practice supporting young children and families. It is designed to help teachers and early childhood professionals to internalize the skills and competencies needed to address challenging behaviors in their classrooms or at homes so that they can meet the critical social-emotional and behavioral needs of children.Design/methodology/approach– The paper will provide: research-based information to establish the need for such training programs; the rational to the conceptual framework of the EC-SEBRIS Certificate Program; the depiction of the wraparound training model, which uses triple coaching and mentoring methods: reflective supervision, videotaping, and on-site coaching for teachers; and a preliminary evaluation of the program, and future plans.Findings– The EC-SEBRIS Certificate Program is at its early implementation stage. The author have graduated four cohorts, for a total of 113, early childhood professionals who have been hired to enhance the behavioral health services provided to young children and families. Overall, results suggest that the students’ knowledge base and confidence improved from time 1 to time 2 for each of the knowledge-based courses.Research limitations/implications– This is a conceptual paper.Practical implications– The program bridges the early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood mental health fields, and recognizes the important role that early care and education professionals play in the socio-emotional development of young children. Coursework, videotaping, on-site coaching, and the reflective process facilitate the application of knowledge through the integration of theory and practice in the field supporting young children and families.Social implications– Challenging behaviors are one of the issues all early childhood educators have to deal within their classrooms. The model, as presented in the manuscript, can be implemented in other higher education institutions to enhance the skill sets of professionals who need to respond to this critical need and support healthy development of young children.Originality/value– This is an original model emphasizing the importance of training early childhood educators to support emotion and behavior regulation in young children. The paper presents a cutting edge teaching model which integrates knowledge, practice, and reflective practice. This training model focuses on the ECE workforce as the front line to the provision of early childhood mental health support.

Creating Trauma-Informed Schools for Rural Appalachia: The Partnerships Program for Enhancing Resiliency, Confidence and Workforce Development in Early Childhood Education

Poverty lack of resources and pervasive adversity threaten the healthy social and emotional development of many children living in rural Appalachia. Despite these traumatic stressors, however, Appalachian residents have proven surprisingly resilient and responsive to intervention. This article describes the twin efforts of the Partnerships Program for Early Childhood Mental Health and Project LAUNCH, a community-university-state initiative, to transform school systems by establishing enduring partnerships within and across schools and agencies, pooling and disseminating critical resources, and strengthening the skills, confidence and capacity of the early childhood education workforce. This article describes the three-tiered framework of services implemented at the schools, with special emphasis on its trauma-informed training for educators combined with trauma-specific mental health interventions delivered on site. Despite a modest sample size, results indicate significant pre-improvement/post-improvement in teacher confidence and hopefulness in positively impacting challenging child behaviors; a decrease in the negative attributes of the preschool learning environment; and increased teacher ratings of child resilience as measured by the Devereux Early Child Assessment. Program limitations and future directions for creating trauma-informed Appalachian schools are discussed.

Challenges of ‘thinking differently’ with rhizoanalytic approaches: a reflexive account

Growing numbers of educational researchers are using rhizoanalytic approaches based on the work of Deleuze and Guattari to think differently in their research practices. However, as those engaging in debates about post-qualitative research suggest, thinking differently is not without its challenges. This paper uses three complex challenges encountered in the author's doctoral research – concerned with the early childhood education workforce – to reflexively explore some of the implications of thinking differently with rhizoanalytic approaches. In particular, the author discusses ways of making correctives to: repetition and thinking differently, ways that subjects are produced as-and-in-assemblages, and, immanent ethics. The paper concludes with some possible implications of these challenges and correctives for research practices, and for debates about post-qualitative research.

The Early Childhood Education Workforce in Europe Between Divergencies and Emergencies

AbstractAcross and beyond Europe, demographic, social and economic pressures both at the macro and the micro level are impacting on the work contexts of early childhood educators. Alongside heightened drives towards expansion and increasing regulation of the field, expectations are intensifying. Additionally, goals and targets for higher education and vocational education at the European policy level are generating restructurings of the national qualification systems for work in the early childhood field. In this dynamic context of change the SEEPRO (Early Education/care and Professionalisation in Europe) study, based at the State Institute of Early Childhood Research in Munich and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs, set out to map the qualification requirements and workplace settings of early years practitioners in their country-specific context. Similarities and differences across the 27 countries of the European Union were documented and analysed. The findings of the study show considerable divergencies across Europe in terms of formal education and training requirements and the desired professional profiles for working with young children. Against this background of diversity, similarities in terms of workforce emergencies and challenges have also emerged: one is a common lack of truly flexible and inclusive pathways linked to formal professional recognition and status forallpractitioners in the field; another is the continuing need to seek more effective ways of including men in the early childhood workforce.

Retention of Staff in the Early Childhood Education Workforce

What incentives can the administrators of early childhood education facilities offer their staff in order to retain them? In light of research identifying low staff turnover as a key component of high quality early childhood education, the answer to this question has ramifications beyond human-resources management. This paper presents the results of a statewide survey of early childhood educators, which indicate that both personal factors (age and experience) and the availability of benefits are associated with intent to remain in the field. The applicability of these findings to employment policies in the field of early childhood education are discussed.