Working in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is highly responsible and challenging. The ability of early childhood educators to cope with their work is a global concern (McDonald et al., 2018). Similarly, ECE centre leaders face stressful and demanding roles. Stressors such as poor pay and limited resources are common, and educators' coping problems and stress are welldocumented (Kwon et al., 2020; Grant et al., 2019; Hughes, 2012). Factors contributing to the workload of ECE centre leaders include excessive responsibilities, lack of time, multiple areas of accountability, and frequent changes in leadership and management practices (Elomaa et al., 2020). This impacts their well-being, the well-being of employees (Skakon et al., 2010), and the development of children (Jorde Bloom & Abel, 2015).

This seminar aims to provide insights into recent research on educators’ and leaders’ well-being in Finland. The presentation will discuss preliminary findings from the broader VOA-project (Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Wellbeing: Organizational factors and staffturnover) and use these findings to consider future research directions. Key questions include identifying factors in ECEC work environments and organisational cultures that contribute to educators’ well-being.

About the speaker:

Dr Mari Saha is an associate professor of early childhood education and the co-director of Research Center for Education, Assessment and Learning at the Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University. Her main research interests include early childhood educators’ and center leaders’ workrelated wellbeing, stress regulation, diverse needs and interprofessional collaboration in early years.