THE PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND ROLE PERCEPTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS IN ATTICA-GREECE’S MUNICIPAL EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERS

Autori

  • Maria Cheilaki Early Childhood Education and Care Educator, Msc Pedagogy through Innovative Technologies and Biomedical Approaches, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
  • Tryfeni Sidiropoulou Professor, Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
  • Maretta Sidiropoulou Assistant Professor, Department of Education Sciences in Early Childhood, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v10i8.4912

Parole chiave:

early childhood center, early childhood education and care educators, professional development, personal theory

Abstract

Early childhood center is concerned as the first environment of children second to their home, in which they socialize and come into contact with organized learning. Their holistic development and well-being are directly linked to preschool structures that implement high-quality education programs. The role of early childhood education and care educators is crucial in determining the quality provided (Foti & Sidiropoulou, 2019).
The purpose is to clarify the frame of the professional habitus and to enrich its understanding. Also, to further investigate if new questions will raise with regards to early childhood education and care educators, extending to students, studies and fellow workers as well as babies, toddlers and their families. All the information collected could be used for decision-making on redefining the aims of the early childhood education sector as well as the early year educators training organizations babies. The followed method was a quantitative approach, using the methodology of questionnaires. The analysis will be descriptive and will include basic descriptive measures (e.g., mean, standard deviation, mode, etc.), as well as frequency tables. Furthermore, we will compare the mean scores by analyzing their variance using One-Way ANOVA. In total, the analyzed questionnaires were 248. From these questionnaires, it appears that early childhood education and care educators select the title that suits their profession depending on the school they graduated. The pedagogical part of their profession is influenced by their studies and the interaction among colleagues. The importance of the pedagogical team and cooperation is recognized. Cooperation with parents is sought. Specialized help to manage children with physical issues is required. They stand in favor of all forms of future training. Compared to the past, the educational level is evaluated as higher. They are more interested in the essence of their educational work and not so much for appearances through events. To conclude, early childhood education and care educators love their profession and fully understand the importance of their work. They keep evolving in terms of their educational level and understand the necessity of their professional development. They desire to be educated in various ways. The results of this research are important to be further used by employment agencies and universities. Given that lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences are often held, it is important to emphasize in-service training and interventions within the actual field of action of the early childhood education and care educators, i.e. the early childhood center.

 

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Biografie autore

  • Maria Cheilaki, Early Childhood Education and Care Educator, Msc Pedagogy through Innovative Technologies and Biomedical Approaches, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece

    Maria Cheilaki is an early childhood education and care educator who has been working in the Early Childhood Centers of the Municipality of Athens for the past 20 years. She holds a Master's degree in "Pedagogy through Innovative Technologies and Biomedical Approaches" from the University of West Attica. She actively participates in seminars, workshops, and conferences as a member of organizational committees. Her interests lie in topics related to applied pedagogy in early childhood and the role of educators.

  • Tryfeni Sidiropoulou, Professor, Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece

    Sidiropoulou Tryfeni is a Psychopedagogist and a professor at the Department of Early Childhood Education & Care at the University of West Attica. She has extensive studies in Clinical Psychopedagogy applied to education. She has collaborated and continues to collaborate with undergraduate and postgraduate programs at several universities in Greece. Her scientific interests revolve around Early Childhood Psychopedagogy, the connection between academic space and early childhood institutions, and action research on the quality of pedagogical practices. She has participated in numerous research projects, and her published scholarly work is expanding both nationally and internationally.

  • Maretta Sidiropoulou, Assistant Professor, Department of Education Sciences in Early Childhood, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

    Maretta Sidiropoulou is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Education Sciences in the Early Childhood Democritus University of Thrace (DuTh). Her field of study is “Reading and Writing: Teaching Approaches and Applications”. She is also teaching at Interdisciplinary Post-Graduate Programmes (University of West Attica, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). She is scientific responsible for the initiative “Open Book Project” (Greek IBBY award 2023) whose aim is to create books aimed at children with or without visual impairments. Ηer main research interests are: literacy practices, visual texts and representation and anthropological aspects of reading.

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Pubblicato

2023-06-26

Fascicolo

V. 10 N. 8 (2023)

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