“My Emotions Do Matter”: Illuminating the Wellbeing Impact of Early Childhood Educators’ Emotional Labour in their Work With Families

Abstract Early childhood educators in Australia and internationally face unprecedented wellbeing challenges, contributing to and stemming from wider workforce attrition issues that adversely impact early childhood education and care (ECEC) quality. Addressing workforce challenges requires understanding educators’ day-to-day work demands and associated wellbeing implications. One area of practice where these understandings are unclear is emotional labour in educators’ work with families. To inform this gap, this paper reports findings from the qualitative component of a larger mixed-method longitudinal study that explored emotional labour in educators’ work with families. Findings show that this labour has negative and positive wellbeing impacts, and that emotional labour and wellbeing share a reciprocally-reinforcing relationship. Multi-level supports that can sustain educators’ emotional labour and wellbeing that warrant attention in ECEC preparation, professional development, and policy are highlighted.