Browsing by Subject "Pedagogie kandidat"

There is a shortage of staff in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Finland in the time of this study. A shortage of qualified workers and the revised Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (580/2018) have created dissatisfaction as eligibility requirements have been tightened. The vocational designations have also been changed, and the title kindergarten teacher has been changed to Early Childhood Education (University, bachelor’s degree) or Bachelor of Social Services (University of Applied Sciences). The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors (challenges and resources) that influence a change of work field from ECEC based on the theoretical model Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) and previous research in subjects such as educational leadership, work communities and the Finnish ECEC control documents. The data was collected in the spring of 2018 with an online survey that was sent to trade unions Talentia, SuPer and the Early Childhood Education Teacher’s Union of Finland (ECE Teachers Union). The survey was forwarded to 3635 people working in ECEC in Finland. The survey was answered by N = 643 persons which gave a response rate of 17.6%. The material was part of a pilot study for the research project ENJOY your work! which is conducted at the University of Helsinki. For this study, the material was limited from eight (8) to two (2) open questions, 749 individual responses were analysed, and qualitative content analysis was used as a method in this final thesis. The results showed that regardless of professional designation or plans to change the working field, the demands and resources of the respondents in the early childhood education were similar. The educators saw the children, good cooperation within the work team, positive feedback from the supervisors (day care managers) as energizing resources in the work. The requirements in ECEC were physically heavy work, incompetent foremen, unauthorized staff, time pressure, no opportunities for planning and a lack of appreciation from society. The demands were physically heavy work, incompetent supervisors, unauthorized staff, time pressure, no opportunities for planning and a lack of appreciation from society.