Research for Joy: A powerful lever in ECEC

Early childhood educators have faced considerable challenges in recent times, the most significant of those being equitable financial compensation and professional recognition. 

The federal government’s decision to make available a Worker Retention payment of 15 percent (to be phased over the next two years) can be seen as a positive step towards addressing the huge demand for staff in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector and change the public perception of their immensely valuable contribution to the lives of children and families.

Our current program of research at the University of Sydney, titled “The Joy Project” (Karaolis & Little, 2023) is learning from educators’ other ways to improve their working environment. 

We focused on early childhood educators (with a range of qualifications and experience) and their perceptions and the presence of joy, of the factors that enabled joy as well as the barriers. 

The first phase of our research found that early childhood programs, (Little &Karaolis, 2023), despite the many global challenges, were places of joy, and that a special kind of joy emerged through play, relationships with children, families and colleagues. We also learned about the barriers to joy, and more about the often-overwhelming demands of looking after the needs of young children. 

For example, when asked:

How often do you attend to Joy, that is, take the time to be present and observe the children and note their joy? How does this make you feel?

One teacher said:

Honestly, not that often. I look at moments of the day and think ‘that’s nice’, but we are so busy with demands from the industry and parents it’s hard to just be in the moment. And that’s in a room that is two staff over the ratio.

And another:

Not as often as I would ideally like, I would love to be more present in each moment of joy but there are usually other parts of the role that require attention to also be elsewhere or other things that need to be completed and done. This means it is difficult to always appreciate these moments. When I have the opportunity to be fully present, I relish these moments and seeing the joy that is present in that moment reminds me of why I am in the profession.

The responses above were typical of many shared by the educators in our survey, and helped shape the next phase of our study that sought to prioritise joy. 

We made joy a priority through a series of approaches designed to increase educators’ awareness of joy. This included conversation prompts for joy, reflections for joy, a puppet called joy and creating a tree of joy. The tree was a place to document joy, with pictures and post it notes of daily moments of joy. 

There were pictures of children, of play spaces and others were expressions of gratitude to other educators, for simple things like buying coffee, cleaning up an area without being asked, or making sure a room leader took her break. 

Educators reported that these practices impacted their day-to-day experience, with one centre director saying this awareness helped educators to “Choose joy”. Or as another educator wrote:

Yes! When we make the effort to look for joy and point out joy in others it is easy to see each day. However, joy can often be forgotten in an environment with high stress. It is something we need to actively look out for.

Early childhood programs interested in developing their awareness of joy are welcome to be part of this research and should contact Dr. Olivia Karaolis at [email protected] or attend a webinar at Webinar #55 | Olivia Karaolis – Choose Joy: How creative practices support joyful encounters in early childhood settings.