Browsing by Subject "päiväkotien hoito- ja kasvatushenkilöstö"

This study charts early childhood educators' experiences of their well-being at childcare work in Helsinki. Both occupational well-being and changes in Finnish early childhood education practices have been very actual topics in societal conversation. According to the earlier research it's known, that occupational well-being consists of many different factors. Occupational well-being has been studied a lot, but not that widely in early childhood education context. This study is about to report the educators' experiences of different sectors in occupational well-being and to compare different relations between these factors and different variables' effects on the experiences. This is a quantitative cross study that has been practiced as a survey. The data was collected by questionnaires from six communal day care centers in Helsinki from all the childcare workers. In total 72 educators with different educational background from kindergarten teachers to nurses took part on this research. Research results proved that early childhood educators in Helsinki found their work pleasant and liked it in their workplaces, even though the majority were unhappy with their salary and had considered changing their careers to different areas of work. Childcare work was found stressful. The stress was found to be caused mainly by lack of time, noise and changes due to sudden absence of the staff. Childcare workers saw their abilities good to deal with stress and other job demands and to influence on their own occupational well-being. Good atmosphere and interaction in the work community and the support from workmates and the director were found very important for occupational well-being.