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The study reported here examined Greek parents' perceptions of barriers to men entering the early childhood education and care profession and their recommendations for recruiting more males into the field. Parents were asked to respond on a Likert scale to statements regarding males' decision to enter the profession, possible benefits for male early childhood educators, and perceived societal attitudes towards male early childhood educators. The findings indicate that the participating parents were in favour of recruiting more males into the early childhood education and care profession but at the same time they recognize the difficulties men encounter when choosing to become early childhood educators. Recommendations for future research designs are formulated.

Early childhood education is a profession which requires the professional staff to spend considerable time in intense involvement with other people. The pressure from the demands this profession has can create a sense of physical and emotional exhaustion that often leads to burnout. Thus, previous research has linked perceptions of the work environment to burnout. Despite the fact that burnout was identified as a serious concern in the childcare profession over 20 years ago, limited research has been undertaken into the field of burnout in early childhood educators in Greece. The present study, employing the Maslach Burnout InventoryÁEducators Survey and the Parents and Staff subscale of the Environment Rating Scale Self-assessment Readiness Checklist, aims to examine whether there is correlation between the levels of burnout reported by Greek early childhood educators and the level to which the setting meets their needs. Research data suggest that the subscales predict one another whereas only partial correlations were found among the ''Emotional Exhaustion'' and ''Depersonalization'' subscales and the ratings in the Parents and Staff subscale.Dr Konstantina Rentzou has worked from 2005 onwards as a Casual Lecturer at the Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, TEI of Epirus, Ioannina, as an instructor in post-secondary education institutions, as an auxiliary staff in the University of Ioannina, Greece and as a researcher in a programme funded by the Research Committee of Ioannina University. She has published 17 papers in Scientific journals and four in conference proceedings. Her teaching and research objectives are early childhood education and care. Her research interests are mainly about issues concerning parental involvement in preschools settings and parent caregiver relationships, involvement and recruitment of males in early childhood education, burnout syndrome, the organization of the preschool environment and provision of quality early childhood education. She is reviewer in three scientific magazines and member of the editorial board of one magazine.

Though quality in early childhood education and care has attracted last decades enormous research interest there is still not a unanimous agreement about its definition. Yet, almost all definitions attempted include interaction, group size, adult:child ratio and early childhood educators' level of education, as important indices of quality. Relationships are key resources for young children. There is agreement among researchers that the quality of caregiving by professional caregivers in child care centres has been established as an important influence on various aspects of child development. Thus, structural characteristics have been proven to affect programs' quality of services provided. The purpose of this research study was twofold: (1) to explore the quality of interaction between Greek early childhood educators and children; and (2) to record the structural characteristics of Greek child care centres. Correlations among structural characteristics and type of interaction were also examined. Research data indicate that Greek early childhood educators are positive but at the same time detached and permissive during their interaction with children, a finding that disputes their positive interaction. Thus, Greek child care centres have been found to adopt, based on Greek legislation, high ratios and group sizes, a finding which raises questions about the effects on children's well being and development. Limited correlations have been found between the type of interaction and the structural characteristics. Research data highlight the need for further research to undergone and for changes in Greek legislation, concerning the operation of Greek child care centres.

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The continuum of beliefs reported by Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers and how those beliefs relate to classroom practices are explored in this article. Considering the potentially important influence of teachers' beliefs on their practices, the level of early childhood teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAPs) and the relationship between their beliefs and practices are regarded as important topics of study in early childhood education. This study was designed in order to investigate Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers' self-reported beliefs and practices related to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's policy statement for DAP. Research results indicated that participants favour DAP both as far as their beliefs and the instructional activities they implement are concerned. Even though the analysis indicated correlations among DAP and developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) beliefs and practices, beliefs have not been found to predict practices.