Historically, research on educator wellbeing has focused on ill health including stress, burnout and emotional exhaustion. There is a dearth of research examining healthy workplace wellbeing among early childhood educators, which makes developing strategies to support their wellbeing difficult. Moreover, there is a lack of clarity about the concept of educator workplace wellbeing and a lack of understanding of the complex interplay between factors supporting and thwarting wellbeing within long day-care centres. This two-phase study used a mixed-methods research design. Presented in this paper are the findings from phase one. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 early childhood educators in long day-care centres reflected on educator workplace wellbeing as a broad concept encompassing social, emotional, physical and economic factors. Educator ‘voices’ provided insight into the individual, relational and contextual elements impacting on their personal workplace wellbeing.
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