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Montana's Early Childhood Educators: Recruiting and Retaining an Essential Workforce.

ABSTRACT: Shifting realities across the world have emphasized the need to change early childhood systems thinking. Specifically, a quality early childhood workforce was in high demand before the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to be in demand until sustainable recruitment and retention efforts are achieved. Encouraging more professionals to enter and stay in the field of early childhood education involves building an understanding of the current workforce through analyzing the influence of age, role, education, wages, and access to incentives on career motivation. In this case study, a rich description of Montana's early childhood workforce is presented along with recommendations to strengthen the state's early childhood workforce systems. Results of survey and focus group data collection and analysis confirmed the pervasive compensation disparity that exists in the early childhood workforce and revealed the need for financial incentives to pursue and attain higher education degrees to help ensure the delivery of quality early childhood education. Specific recommendations for policy change include sharing the data across other state systems and with other nations for the purpose of supporting the growth and development of the early childhood workforce in the United States and beyond.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-022-01308-3.

SUBMITTER: Lux C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8832078 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundEarly childhood educators (ECEs) play a critical role in promoting physical activity (PA) among preschoolers in childcare; thus, PA-related training for ECEs is essential. The Supporting PA in the Childcare Environment (SPACE) intervention incorporated: 1. shorter, more frequent outdoor play sessions; 2. provision of portable play equipment; and, PA training for ECEs. An extension of the SPACE intervention (the SPACE-Extension) incorporated only the shorter, more frequent outdoor play periods component of the original SPACE intervention. The purpose of this study was to explore the individual impact of these interventions on ECEs' PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge.MethodsECEs from the SPACE (n = 83) and SPACE-Extension (n = 31) were administered surveys at all intervention time-points to assess: self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA (n = 6 items; scale 0 to 100); self-efficacy to implement the intervention (n = 6 items); and, knowledge of preschooler-specific PA and screen-viewing guidelines (n = 2 items). A linear mixed effects model was used to analyze the impact of each intervention on ECEs' self-efficacy and knowledge and controlled for multiple comparison bias.ResultsThe SPACE intervention significantly impacted ECEs' self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA for 180 min/day (main effect), and when outdoor playtime was not an option (interaction effect). Further, the interaction model for ECEs' knowledge of the total PA guideline for preschoolers approached significance when compared to the main effects model. Participants within the SPACE-Extension did not demonstrate any significant changes in self-efficacy or knowledge variables.ConclusionsFindings from this study highlight the benefit of ECE training in PA with regard to fostering their PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge. Future research should explore the impact of PA training for ECEs uniquely in order to determine if this intervention component, alone, can produce meaningful changes in children's PA behaviours at childcare.

Dataset Information

Montana's Early Childhood Educators: Recruiting and Retaining an Essential Workforce.

Supplementary information

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