Insider perspectives: the ‘tricky business’ of providing for children’s sleep and rest needs in the context of early childhood education and care

Abstract

Sleep and rest provision in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is commonly enacted as a routine – a standard time-period during which children are required to lie down even if they do not sleep. Yet contemporary ECEC policies emphasise responsive pedagogical practice that includes children in decision-making and respects each child’s developmental and sociocultural context as appropriate pedagogical practice. To understand current practices, analyses of numeric data and textual accounts from a survey of Australian ECEC service providers, leaders and educators (N = 247) was undertaken. Two broad challenges to enabling responsive practice and inclusion of children in decision-making were identified: (1) Provisions – organisational interpretations of national policy and attendant resourcing set the structural parameters for achievement of responsive pedagogical practice. (2) Practices – individual and communal demands on educators and their professional philosophy set interactional parameters. Service leadership played a pivotal role in determining whether sleep–rest practices were Routine (84%) or Responsive (16%). Responsive leaders were characterised by strong professional advocacy for child rights and child-focused pedagogy. They instigated professional reflection and communication strategies within their service and removed expectation that educators could undertake alternative activity while providing for children’s sleep and rest.

Keywords:

• Sleep
• rest
• early childhood education and care
• policy
• practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the Queensland Government, Department of Education and Training, Australia.

Supplemental data

The supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2018.1443434.

Acknowledgements

We thank all participating educators, service leaders and provider organisations for their inputs to this study.