Early childhood educators’ perspectives on the integration of nursery education into the national education system

The Early Childhood Curriculum in Romania has already foreseen upcoming changes in the field of nursery education in 2019. This became concrete in the autumn of 2021, with the publication of Emergency Government Decree No. 100 (Emergency Government Decree No. 100/2021), which made crèches part of the public education system, providing integrated education, care and supervision services for young children aged 0-3 years. Our study aims to show the impact of the introduction of early childhood education in the educational system on the professional activities and career prospects of early childhood educators. We hypothesized that the judgment of legislative changes is ambivalent among early childhood educators. As a research method, documentary analysis was used for the theoretical groundwork, while the empirical investigation was based on the method of a questionnaire. In data analysis, we used the techniques of frequency, mean, chi square, analysis of variance, factor analysis. An access sampling procedure was used, and we included 103 early childhood educators who were working as nursery teachers in autumn 2023. (It was very difficult to access the sample, probably due to the changing legal framework and the uncertainty created by these changes.) Our results show that respondents perceive institutional change as positive overall and tend to emphasize the benefits. They consider that the inclusion of nursery education in the education sector has given it its rightful place in the system of social activities. Those who have taken up a job as early childhood educators are committed to the age group and are facing challenges and difficulties, despite the uncertainty brought about by changes in the sector. Furthermore, the study has revealed the current situation of early childhood education in Romania from the perspective of the early childhood teachers.