Five Main responsibilities of a childcare educator

Working in early childhood education and care has lots of perks and advantages compared to other education careers, but besides these advantages comes great responsibilities. In this article, we would like to share the five main responsibilities and obligations of a childcare educator.

Build a trustable relationship with the Child

When I’m being asked about the first/most important thing you do with the children as a teacher, the answer is “build a trustable relationship between me and them”. This relationship is considered the roots of their developmental tree. 

The stronger the roots are, the better the tree will be. There are various ways for establishing the relationship such as play with them, observe to understand their needs, interest and abilities, open discussions, communicate with their families to learn more about their culture and more. 

Ensure Holistic Learning

Some educators wrongly think that their job is to help children to develop their literacy and numeracy skills. 

However, “Holistic” means all domains of development: Physical, Emotional, Cognitive, Social and Communication. Your main role as an educator is to ensure that the child is developing in all areas.  

Prepare the Environment

We believe that the environment surrounding the child is a third teacher. The reason behind this belief is that the child learns as he/she interacts with the surrounding environment. Therefore, another important role is to plan and provide resources/environment that will support the holistic development of all the children. 

A very important feature of a good environment is being inclusive. Inclusive means that it reflects all the children’s interests, meet their abilities and challenge their learning  

Assess the child’s learning

What differentiates between a good educator or not is your ability to reflect and assess the child’s learning. You will need to assess whether your planned experiences have supported the children to achieve their learning outcomes or not. If not, what you would do to improve on the outcomes and if yes, what you would do next to ensure continuous learning.

An Educator Must Ensure Ongoing Learning and Self-Development

This is not about the children’s learning. It is about you as being an educator. You are on a learning trip all the time to extend your knowledge and improve your own teaching practice. Remember we live in a continuous changing environment. Your job is to ensure that you are continuously learning to be able to teach young children.  

Interested in becoming an early childhood educator? Learn more about our Early Childhood Education courses here: 

Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care

Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care

If you have questions, feel free to get in touch with Caroline Labib, an Early Childhood Teacher/Trainer @ GBCA

Email: caroline.labib@gbca.edu.au