Organisational Capacity Building: Readiness for Change in Australian Child Care

Abstract

THIS STUDY ASSESSES FAMILY day care educators' readiness for increasing their knowledge and skills in promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing by applying the Transtheoretical Model of Change conceptual framework. Forty-eight educators in one family day care scheme, in a low socioeconomic area of Victoria, Australia participated in telephone interviews. Their readiness to improve children's social and emotional wellbeing was classified according to the stages of change model. A high proportion of educators were classified into the action or maintenance stage. Educators reported a range of activities that they were undertaking such as attending professional development sessions and studying formal early childhood qualifications. While educators were open to increasing their knowledge and skills in promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing, they were juggling many demands. The stages of change model was useful in providing an understanding of the processes and principles for progressing through stages, essential for organisational capacity building.

Building the Capacity of Family Day Care Educators to Promote Children's Social and Emotional Wellbeing: Results of an Exploratory Cluster Randomised-Controlled Trial

“…Despite working in partnership with the one FDC scheme for years prior to the trial, and including educators at every stage of developing the Thrive program, the intervention sample was smaller than anticipated and skewed towards educators who were more highly qualified. In a previous study, we demonstrated that almost all educators reported that they needed to increase their knowledge about children's social and emotional wellbeing (Davis et al, 2015), and they indicated that they would be keen to be a part of a new program. When it came time to recruit however, many reported that they were too busy to attend the workshops.…”