The Unbearable Lightness of Being an Early Childhood Educator in Day-Care Settings^†

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

-More recent citations may help to show further longitudinal research on this topic and can demonstrate that this is still pertinent. There do appear to be a select few of 2022-2025 citations, but they are all by the author(s) themselves. 

-The idea of "unbearable lightness" is neither described nor defined within the contextual framework. And although there is a footnote found in the title, the article may be improved with some detail of this phenomenon within the contextual framework. 

-The article is well-written and delves into an issue which may impact educators in ways that cross cultural lines, which further makes this an article worthy of publication. 

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We have carefully considered the comments provided and have addressed them in detail in the attached document.

Best regards, 

The Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The research was well developed and timely. One of the key points outline din the research related to the impact of neuroscience and the focus on the first 1000 days for a child. Clearly, research is beginning to highlight the important role that early childhood teachers play in the development of the young child in a number of key areas. The need to ensure that the stages of development of the student in the early childhood stage are acknowledged as significant and therefore, there needs to be a commensurate level of recognition given to those who are involved in this area. Understanding the social, emotional and work related needs of these professionals will no doubt assist in providing a greater insights in to ways in which this stage of student development could be better addressed. In doing so there possibly could be a win-win for all with a better approach to the professional needs of those involved in this area and the quality of education being delivered to students. 

The paper was well structured and well developed and the key questions addressed reflected a depth of vision and understanding of the numerous challenges facing teachers working in this area.

Only some minor comments with respect to the paper - watch the use of quotation marks without page references. Try not to use it of its too much. When using the same author but different dates - (Author, 2009, 2023). Finally, inent your references - second line APA 7.

Well done and congratulations.  

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We have carefully considered the comments provided and have addressed them in detail in the attached document.

Best regards, 

The Authors.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the opportunity to review this important paper. The study is a highly valuable contribution that illuminates important issues in the ECEC sector in Portugal, and which are echoed in many countries around the world. The paper is well written and structured and outlines important implications for the sector.

My main comment is that given that there has been much published from this study already (as evidenced by the Author references used throughout), when I got to the results section I felt as though much of what was presented had already been discussed in the front end/lit review section of the paper. To make really clear the new information this paper is adding, some refining of what was known before and what is new in this paper/aspect of the study would be beneficial.

Also, I found in the results section that some parts of the results are presented as a general commentary on what educators do (merged with discussion), rather than explicitly reporting what the educators in the study did and said.

e.g. Page 11 “many educators build informal networks of mutual support. They seek out trusted peers, create moments for shared listening in corridors, during breaks, or in end-of-day text messages. These daily acts of resistance and peer care are among the few antidotes to the structural loneliness in which their emotional work is performed.”

Should this be written more like: “many educators in the study built informal networks of mutual support. They sought out trusted peers and created moments for shared listening in corridors…”?

Some additional comments:

• Clarify what is meant by nursery in the Portuguese context this is important in an international paper as 'nursery' means different things in different countries
• Clarify what is meant by educator/teacher and qualification requirements for working in the nursery context in Portugal i.e. do teachers with Bachelor degrees work in nurseries?
• A little more initial information about the notion of ‘silences’ – this is referred to throughout the paper and would be more meaningful if grounded in an initial unpacking.
• Emotional labour – some information about why this is problematic for educators would make the results and discussion around this more robust. Also, is it really 'emotional labour' that is being discussed? See notes on the manuscript.
• There are quite a few single sentence paragraphs – check that these are deliberate and appropriate.

See further comments on the manuscript attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We have carefully considered the comments provided and have addressed them in detail in the attached document.

Best regards, 

The Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf