Administrative requirements and job satisfaction in early childhood education and care

Early childhood educators in Australia navigate a complex set of legal requirements in their daily practice. In addition to industry specific regulations there are many other laws which create administrative obligations for staff including workplace safety, taxation, food safety, immunisation and industrial relations laws. Reflecting on the ubiquity of these laws in prescribing specific practices for all staff in early childhood settings, there is a conspicuous lack of current research relating to the relationship between administrative requirements and their implications for educators. Informed by industrial-organisational psychology, this study explored the way in which administrative requirements influenced the job satisfaction of educators. Data was collected through a survey of 126 educators working in long day care centres in the state of New South Wales (NSW) who assumed both teaching and administrative responsibilities. Ten of these participants self-nominated for a follow up interview to explore relevant issues in more depth. Findings from the survey and interviews suggest that administrative responsibilities can be both a source of job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction for early childhood educators, with different aspects contributing to educators’ positive and negative attitudes towards their work. Complicating these results were issues relating to the way in which educators managed the paid time allocated to them to perform administrative work. Findings from this study have implications for ECEC policy and practice in terms of how administrative work is performed in centres.