by Jo Maloney
All of us in early childhood education and care have arrived home from work either completely exhausted or gratified as a result of interacting with children and colleagues over the day and fulfilling the many other expectations of our role. The energy levels and wellbeing of early learning educators are impacted by many factors that can support or diminish wellbeing. Familiar factors that diminish wellbeing include time pressures, lack of staffing, high expectations, documentation, dealing with challenging behaviours and working with parents. On the other hand, factors that can positively influence our wellbeing include:
- developing and maintaining positive relationships
- positive communication
- having a sense of belonging and connection
- using our strengths
- being compassionate.
Focusing on the wellbeing of early childhood educators improves job satisfaction and promotes high-quality care (McMullen et al 2020). Establishing and maintaining positive relationships supports our wellbeing and is an area in which it is worth investing our time and effort. During even one day in an early childhood education setting, we spend time in many relationships, giving us the capacity to contribute to the wellbeing buckets of ourselves and others.
Benefits of positive relationships
Research has shown that positive relationships can support our physical health, emotional carrying capacity and resilience, and can build cooperation to foster a high-functioning team. All of this leads to greater levels of energy, learning, creativity, trust and openness to build human capital that increases productivity and performance (Cameron 2021).
Moreover, as well as contributing to our wellbeing, positive relationships can support us to be the best versions of ourselves and influence others to be their best selves.
Positive relationships with colleagues
Positive relationships form a solid wellbeing foundation from which educators can feel supported and connected, with a sense of belonging. When considering ways to establish relationships or build on existing ones, we might reflect on the ways we communicate and connect that set the foundational tone of a relationship. Jane Dutton (2003), co-founder of the Center for Positive Organisations, tells us that we can do this when we are genuine, convey presence, listen effectively and communicate in supportive and affirming ways.
Being genuine starts with greeting our colleagues warmly, which is a great way for all of us to begin our workday. A warm smile can enlist mirror neurons that trigger the other person to join us in a smile (just as when someone else yawns, we yawn too). A smile releases feel-good hormones in our brain, which – teamed with eye contact – can put us in a state to support relationship building and sets us up for connection.
Consistency
Being consistent in what we communicate verbally and non-verbally provides a level of comfort for the colleague we are communicating with so they feel more able to reciprocate. Affirming communication may include acknowledging that colleague’s efforts and contributions to the team. Remembering how we feel when others communicate affirmingly about our own performance can prompt us to do this regularly. Affirming communication needs to be as specific as possible, with clear detail of how the colleague’s actions contributed to the team and highlighting their strengths and skills, which enables them to acknowledge and build on these. Working with our strengths and skills supports our wellbeing and ability to be open to building relationships with others (Cameron 2021).
When positive relationships with their colleagues support their wellbeing, educators have greater capacity to attune to the social and emotional needs of the children that they educate and to care for and build strong relationships with them.
Positive relationships with children
The characteristics of positive communication that Dutton highlights – being genuine, conveying presence, listening effectively and communicating in supportive and affirming ways – apply equally to our relationships with children. We can convey presence by greeting each child and family warmly when they arrive and supporting the child’s transition from the care of their family into the care of the service. We need to do this in a predictable way that establishes clear routines and rituals so that the child and family feel comfortable and are more open to connection and building relationships.
Children need us to listen effectively. We can do this by being on the child’s level and being readily available, spending lots of our time in their learning space so that we are there when they need us to listen to or support them. This reinforces a clear attachment relationship, which is essential for children’s wellbeing and development. Another aspect of listening to younger children is to be attentive to their non-verbal communication with the aim of capturing the message they are trying to convey. Children will build a sense of trust with adults who are reliable and respond to their attempts at communication.
Communication with children
Communicating in an affirming way with children can look like noticing and acknowledging them in their play. It also involves approaching them compassionately when they exhibit challenging behaviour. Acknowledging that behaviour is a way of recognising that they are having a hard time and that we are there to support, not judge, and to help them to learn the skills that they are missing.
Bringing these characteristics of high-quality connections into our interactions with children provides the grounding for high levels of social and emotional development and results in high-quality relationships that benefit everyone involved in them. This supports a more fulfilling day for all and contributes to higher levels of wellbeing, an essential component of high-quality early childhood education and care.
References
Cameron, K. 2021. Positively Energizing Leadership: Virtuous actions and relationships that create high performance. Berret-Koehler Publishers.
Dutton, J. 2003. Fostering high-quality connections: how to deal with corrosive relationships at work. Stanford Social Innovation Review Winter.
McMullen, MB, Lee, MSC, McCormick, KI and Choi, J. 2020. Early childhood professional well-being as a predictor of the risk of turnover in child care: a matter of quality. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 34(3): 341–45.
About the author
Jo Maloney is a consultant who supports leaders, educators and organisations to reach their positive potential. She has a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology, a Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing and a Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood). Jo has worked in the early childhood and community sectors for 30 years in various roles including director, teacher, TAFE teaching, mindfulness facilitator, and providing trauma-informed social-emotional learning support for children and educators. Jo believes that high-quality education and care originates from educators who possess high levels of wellbeing to enable them to support each other, children, families and their communities to thrive.
