Enhancing Children’s Well-being by Supporting the Well-being of Early Childhood Educators

High quality early childhood (EC) education experiences positively impact children’s learning and well-being, both in the short- and long-term. Consequently, there has been increasing interest in improving the quality of EC education across many nations. Likewise, the Singapore government has implemented different initiatives over the past 20 years to raise the quality of EC education. Despite increased government investment, common EC workforce challenges remain, such as recruitment, turnover between workplaces, and attrition from the field altogether. These are causes for concern as high turnover and attrition rates affect the quality of education and care by interfering with efforts to create consistency in relational-care systems. Thus, there is a clear need for local research studies focused on generating solutions to address these workforce challenges. While many international studies have identified educator well-being as a focal point of this research agenda, there is a scarcity of such research in Singapore. In this chapter, I argue that EC educator well-being is a crucial component of high-quality EC education, which contributes to children’s well-being. I then provide a review of relevant research and identify key gaps in our knowledge, followed by a discussion of implications for research and policy in Singapore.