Australian early childhood educators' emotional support to families and children during COVID-19 pandemic

This chapter interrogates the experiences of early childhood (ECE) educators during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Victoria, Australia. To understand their experiences, we draw upon Hoschild’s (2012) sociology of emotions and feelings to analyse early childhood educators’ emotional labour. A mixed-method design was used to capture the perspectives of educators, by both quantifying their levels of posttraumatic distress through a survey and extending their responses through in-depth interviews to unpack the personal, institutional and societal impact of COVID-19. Two-hundred and sixteen educators participated in the survey and thirty educators participated in an interview. The findings make visible educators' increased emotional labour, in addition to their commitment to provide effective communication, care and emotional support to children and families during COVID-19. Given that ECE educators actively and tirelessly supported children and their families during the pandemic, despite experiencing emotional burnout, the implications of this study suggests that more targeted professional learning is needed in order to protect the health and wellbeing of ECE educators for future critical events.