Taking a detailed look at early childhood educators’ worktime

Despite the acknowledged complexity and time pressures of early childhood educators’ work, very few studies have examined the nature of this work, minute-by-minute, over the working day. This paper reports on data gathered through 10,155 time-use diary (TUD) records provided by 321 educators participating in the Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work Australian Research Council Linkage Project. Participants were recruited from preschool/ kindergarten and long day care centres that had achieved a rating of Exceeding the Australian National Quality Standard on all seven Quality Areas. Analyses of this extensive dataset illustrate the rhythm and diversity of educators’ work across a typical day and identify the similarities and differences in worktime distributions for educators working in preschool vs. long day care settings, and for educators with different qualifications and positional responsibilities. The findings suggest differential allocations of work time that raise important considerations for achieving high quality early childhood education and care services.