“We need support…in order to keep going”: The association between early educators’ work environments and career intentions

• Educators’ perceptions of autonomy and agency affect their career intentions. • Supported early educators are committed their programs. • High quality supervision significantly impacts educator retention. • Place matters: importance of local and program context for ECE staff retention. Inadequate working conditions and low wages have long fueled turnover and teaching shortages in the early care and education (ECE) sector; however, few studies have taken a holistic approach to understanding the impact of work environments upon early educator retention, and still fewer examine these environmental qualities from educators’ perspectives. Focusing on two studies conducted after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article utilizes both variable- and person-centered approaches in exploring how early educator assessments of ECE work environments relate to educators’ career intentions. Variable-centered analyses indicate that positive working environment elements such as autonomy, teamwork, and program climate are related to greater retention of educators. participants who reported more positive working environments were also more likely to report an intention to stay at their current program. Our person-centered results suggest that educators’ career intentions are impacted by different configurations of work environment qualities. Participants working in programs characterized as “below average” using educator-reported work environment quality assessments were more likely to voice intentions of leaving their current program, and also to consider leaving the ECE field entirely. While similar profiles were found across the two study locations, the elements of the work environment driving the relationship with career outcomes differed somewhat by location, indicating that influences upon an educator’s career intentions in one community may not hold as much sway in another. Thus, policies to improve ECE work environments should take into consideration the specific experiences of educators in the context of communities, regions, and states.