Roles of an Early Childhood Educator

Early childhood educators have more responsibility now than ever before.  Early childhood educators have to fill the shoes of multiple people in their students’ lives and not just their teacher.  An early childhood professional must embrace and understand their always changing role including being a strong communicator, a coach, a keeper of the watch, a storyteller, and a researcher (Miels, 2007), a disciplinary, a friend, a teacher, an emotional supporter, a role model, and an advocate all while meeting the ever changing needs of their students.  Early childhood educators can find the need for their services in multiple kinds of settings such as daycares, laboratory preschools, and even elementary schools.  Early childhood spans a larger age range than many think, including children from zero through eight years old.  Early childhood educators need to be well rounded and have a greater understanding of young children than any other education professionals.  The enjoyment of playing and interacting with young children is not enough to truly fill the role of an early childhood educator.  Understanding the biological workings of a child and any theories about the development of children between the ages of zero and eight is just as important as the enjoyment of working with young children. 

The early years of a child are arguably the most important years of a person’s life.  The amount of learning that is obtained and learned during the first 5 years of life is what helps to shape the adult they will become.  Nature can only account for so much of a child’s success, and nurture needs to be present to solidify the skills needed to be successful in any aspect of life.  With the increase of single parent homes and the need to have both parents working outside of the home, daycare has become a second home for children, making it imperative that they receive educational support within the daycare to help them thrive as adults; daycare is no longer just babysitting.  It’s estimated that 12 million infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in the United States attend daycare and most of those children spend 40 hours a week in daycare with many starting when just weeks old (Lang, 2005).  With the large amount of time young children are spending outside of the home with strangers, it becomes even more imperative for daycare workers to become trained and educated on the ins and outs of early childhood development.  The old saying that it takes a village to raise a child is truer today than ever before.  If we do not all take a vested interest in the young children of the country the United States will not be able to stay competitive with the rest of the world.  The growing need for quality early childhood education has become an important topic to all countries and not just the United States, desiring the goal of achieving more positive outcomes for young children (Pearson & Degotardi, 2009).

Early childhood educators within a daycare setting must understand their role and how to interact with children, parents, and other workers.  While a basic daycare worker without a degree or background in early childhood education can certainly offer any child the basic needs of life to sustain life and hopefully have fun doing it, there is more to the care of our young children than just meeting basic needs and having fun.  Learning needs to occur and the understanding that children are constantly learning and taking in their world is as important as their basic needs.  When an educator has the background knowledge of how children learn, the correct activities can be available and the right support for each child can happen to help ensure the best learning environment.  Children begin learning at birth and even then it is important to know what those infants should and should not be exposed to.  An educator working with young children needs to have the correct training to help them create the best learning environment that includes skillful combinations of explicit instruction, sensitive and warm interactions, responsive feedback, and verbal engagement and stimulation intentionally directed to ensure children’s learning while not being overly structured and regimented (Zigler, Gilliam, & Barnett, 2011). 

            Daycare workers are not required to have any kind of further education or college degree to take care of children; however daycares that pride themselves on the well-rounded education they can provide their children should have accredited, educated adults with an expertise in early childhood.  The understanding of human development and the knowledge of theories and current research are essential in properly helping raise and mold children.  Behaviors can be understand and handled when the understanding of where it comes from is more apparent to the adult working with them.  Children are not always equipped with the words or ways to express their needs creating a need for the adults working with them to be an interpreter of sorts to help that child or children to sort through their problems and find resolutions to best resolve the issue.  The knowledge of being an interpreter for young children comes with education and training, and without that a child may end up frustrated, more confused, or given the wrong information on how to handle things, meaning they are taught with bad information. 

Adults charged with the task of helping to care for young children must understand that the opportunities for learning are everywhere.  Knowing what a child is exposed to and what they are not is a key in understanding how to help increase that child’s knowledge base.  If a child rides the bus with mom or dad to get places on a regular basis, that child may need to learn more about trains and not much about buses, or the knowledge on buses could be expanded to learn about where buses go, how many can you count, and questions that lead the child to think outside of their normal everyday life.  According to recent studies, 12 percent of workers in a daycare center hold a higher degree such as a bachelor’s degree or higher and only 19 percent have any kind of college credits beyond their high school diploma, while 38 percent hold no education at all in the field of early childhood (Driscoll & Nagel, 2008).  30 states in the United States do not require any sort of early childhood education or background to become a day care worker, while 4 states require three to 12 credit hours in early childhood education, only one state requires a bachelor’s degree, and four require a Child Development Associate degree (Driscoll & Nagel, 2008).  

Laboratory schools in another place that early childhood educators can flourish.  Laboratory schools are typically funded by a University or college which would use workers who have advanced degrees working with the children and planning their activities.  The richness of exposure for those children involved in a laboratory school would be backed up by years of experience and education from the teachers.  The education of the teachers is not the only bonus of a laboratory school, the number of educated adults working together to collaborate and share information is a positive for parents and children alike.  Being a team player as an adult is an important role model characteristic.  Young children are always looking to the adults in their lives to learn how to act or react to a situation or personal feeling, which makes it even more important that the adults working together get along and work together.  Learning to work on a team is invaluable to a child who will have to work with others their entire life.  Laboratory schools usually have the reputation of offering a quality education to young children (Driscoll & Nagel, 2008), however laboratory schools do not service as large number of children and local daycare centers do.  Educators working in laboratory schools are fresh on their ideas and their knowledge of current research.  They are well versed in past theorists and how to apply those theories to the children they come in contact with. 

Public school is another facet of early childhood education that creates an atmosphere of what the child’s future will look like in education.  If a preschool is housed within an elementary school, children learn the rules of school very quickly and are exposed to older groups of children just by being in the same building and sharing the same hallways.  The educators providing the instruction, are teacher certified, meaning they must hold a valid teaching certificate.  In most public schools a specialty in early childhood education is preferred and even required, to teach in a preschool classroom.  When a teacher works in a public school they must understand all that comes with that, including older siblings, older children and their behaviors, larger number of children to influence behavior, and many times less qualified adults for larger number of children.  Being able to keep the exposure to appropriate stimulus for pre-school children is a difficult job for any teacher within the public schools.  The schools are public for a reason and that allows parents to be involved along with other community members, and the early childhood educator does not always have control over the involvement of other family members in the building.

Whether the educator is teaching in a formal setting or informal setting, flexibility is necessary to succeed for the benefit of the child.  One day the job may be more emotional and supportive when the next day it may be more exploratory and encouraging.  Knowledge is power for all involved and the more learning on the educator’s part will in turn increase learning power on the child’s side.  An early childhood educator needs to be everything to every child no matter the placement, situation, and time, children will only thrive if they learn from the adults they are surrounded by, and it makes no difference how they come in contact with those adults as long as everyone is focused on the success of the child.

References

Driscoll, A., & Nagel, N. G. (2008). Early childhood education, birth-8. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Lang, H. (2005, May 1). The trouble with day care; Are researchers telling parents the whole truth about day care? The verdict isn't good and parents won't like it. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200505/the-trouble-day-care?page=2

Miels, J. (2007). The seven faces of the early childhood educator. Retrieved November 9, 2011, from Earlychildhood NEWS: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_print.aspx?ArticleId=171

Pearson, E., & Degotardi, S. (2009). Education for sustainable development in early childhood education: A global solution to local concerns. International Journal of Early Childhood, 97-111.

Zigler, E., Gilliam, W. S., & Barnett, W. S. (2011). The pre-k debates; current controversies & issues. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.