Browsing by Author "Wires, Susanna"

The aim of this study is to find out the state of the work engagement in a Southern Finland municipality during a work engagement project carried out in the municipal early childhood education and if there is disparity between occupational groups. The aim is also to find out the job demands and resources in early childhood education and whether there is a connection between them and work engagement and if there is a disparity between occupational groups in experiencing job demands and resources. The work engagement is observed based on job demands and resources model at the perspective of early childhood education. In last few years there have been different kinds of pressures of change in the field of early childhood education. Although studies show the work engagement of early childhood educators is mainly good there have also been signs of lacking well-being. The work engagement also affects the quality of the pedagogy implemented with the children which makes it important to enhance it. The data of this study was collected in a work engagement project carried out by the municipality with an electronic questionnaire in 2018 (N = 219) and 2019 (N = 228) from the employees of municipal early childhood education. The data was analysed quantitatively using SPSS. The results show that the state of the work engagement of employees of early childhood education was good and there was no disparity between occupational groups and there were no statistically significant changes in it during the follow up time of the work engagement project. The results also show that the job resources in early childhood education were encouraged work atmosphere and clear ways of action, the superior's support and appreciative work community, constructive interaction, balance between responsibilities and resources, possibilities on influencing ones work and utilising ones expertise as well as supporting occupational health and industrial safety. All the job resources were positively correlated with the work engagement. There was statistically significant difference between the occupational groups regards of experiencing possibilities on influencing ones work and utilising one’s expertise in one’s work. The special early education teachers and teachers experienced more possibilities to influence their work and utilise their expertise than day care workers and assisting staff. So, the work engagement of employees of early childhood education and the experienced job resources seems to be mainly good and sufficient.