“Who I Am at Work”. Sources and Determinants in the Work of Nursery Childcare Workers
“Who I Am at Work”. Sources and Determinants in the Work of Nursery Childcare Workers

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the ways in which childcare workers position their professional experience in their work (sources) and explores how they perceive their work as childcare workers (determinants). This exploratory study focuses on the experiences and perceptions of childcare workers. Twenty individual interviews were carried out with qualified childcare workers. The transcriptions were analysed using thematic analysis to explore perceptions of sources and determinants of strategies, which was described in the context of U. Bronfenbren- ner’s ecological model. The model reveals that a childcare worker’s professional role forms the basis for their self-perceptions, with the mesosystem emphasizing the crucial influence of beliefs and behav- iours of other childcare workers, directors, parents, and children on shaping their professional identity, while the exosystem, macrosys- tem, and chronosystem collectively contribute to the dynamic and time-dependent construction of this identity within the broader so- cietal and cultural context (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).The professional experience of childcare workers is analysed in light of the needs for strengthening professional practice, as well as advocating for the im- plementation of policies that ensure better professional status. The determinants influencing strategies in their work were identified as mental costs, attitudes toward the profession, successes and failures, and the atmosphere in the facility, emphasising the importance of managerial support and the need for clearer tools to address chal- lenges in childcare.

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