ECEs
as Professionals

What does it mean to be a professional in early childhood education?

ECE practitioners are passionate and creative professionals in the field of early childhood education and human development. Reflective practice and ongoing learning are cornerstones of ECE professional development, and there are many career pathways through early childhood education as a field. ECEs support each others’ career development through peer mentorship and communities of practice.

In Atlantic Canada, just under 10,000 early childhood educators provide care and learning services for more than 60,000 children. The vast majority of ECE professions in Canada are women, and the same is true in Atlantic Canada. A decade ago fewer ECEs working in Atlantic Canada had newcomer backgrounds, and on the whole the Atlantic provinces had less racial and cultural diversity represented among the ECE workforce compared to the national average. However, these trends are changing as overall regional demographics shift and the ECE workforce adapts and grows.

Early learning and care

Systemic challenges, resourceful ECEs

Developing an ECE practice

ECEs as professional learners

Systemic challenges, resourceful ECEs

systemic-challenges-eces-leaders

Despite the meaningful work of ECEs, the sector faces some challenges. Research conducted as part of the ECE Lab revealed four key systemic challenges that impact ECEs’ work:

  • An overall aging workforce,
  • more diverse needs for care and learning often without adequate specialist support,
  • a history of low wages and limited benefits, and
  • high occupational risk for burnout.

ECEs from across Atlantic Canada shared the challenges they face in their own words.

After 23 years of constantly caring for other people, I just forgot to fill my own tank. So, that’s another professional learning, I feel. Our own mental wellness is extremely important for us to be able to maintain a high professional level of care. Like we need to put on our own oxygen mask first.

In general, we hear a lot of talk about how important the ECE sector is, but there’s never really concrete actions to make the staff or the educators feel like they are important. I’ve had quite a few staff tell me they were actually ashamed or they didn’t really like saying to people that they worked in daycare because people assumed that they were babysitting kids and they were sitting all day and not doing very much.

I struggled with the children with autism, because all those children are so different and some of them are brilliant and some of them really struggle and its just hard to figure out what that child in particular needs. So, I did struggle with that because we couldn’t get good support workers for children with special needs.

Public perception of ECE work doesn’t always align with the high level of professionalism practiced in the sector, and this can lead to ECEs not being properly recognized for their contributions to society. The ECE sector is addressing this through better-defined career pathways, expanded credentialing options, increased wages, professional learning programs, and public relations campaigns.

Some of these solutions were prototyped in the ECE Lab. You can learn more about them on the ECEs as Innovators page.

The lab also shone light on the creative and resilient ways that ECEs bring resources to bear on these challenges, and how they strive to deliver high-quality early learning and care.

Read more about the challenges ECEs face at work, and efforts to address them, in the ECE Lab Report

ECE lab report

Atlantic Canada ECE Lab Report 2020-2021