Early childhood educators’ solidarity and struggles for recognition

Abstract

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators’ well-being and emotional demands during COVID require careful attention. This article explores the emotional demands experienced by ECEC educators in Australia during ongoing periods of lockdown. A survey was designed to gather quantitative and qualitative data and participants were asked to participate in in-depth interviews. Thirty participants were interviewed to explore personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic; of these, a selected sample of six participants is presented, drawing on Honneth (1995) as an analytical framework. The findings show ECEC educators struggle for recognition and how solidarity amongst educators emerged as a key response. Implications provide impetus for the active recognition of the early childhood profession. Solidarity as a new concept in ECEC includes the recognition of the early childhood profession at a societal level, recognising the significant professional work early childhood educators accomplish, and their struggle during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.