ABSTRACT
This study explored early childhood educators’ experiences and understanding of bullying in early childhood. Fourteen early childhood educators were interviewed. All the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).The results showed four themes: (1) Educators’ emotional burden from children’s unexpected behavior, (2) Ambiguity of conscious intent among young children, (3) Implications associated with children’s external characteristics, (4) Educators’ empathetic stance toward bullying behaviors. Furthermore, participants perceived bullying as a serious behavior and were more likely to intervene during incidents. Increasing educators’ awareness is crucial in order to expand their acknowledgment of this problem.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the ATEI of Thessaloniki research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.