Educators’ responses to children’s grieving: exploring emotional configurations in flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care

Abstract

The study explores emotional configurations that emerge from educators’ responses to children’s grieving in flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland. We analysed observational data of children who were under three years old and their educators, focusing on the interrelationships between the children’s grief, the educators’ sense-making, and their practices. The exploration yielded three emotional configurations that address different ways in which educators make sense of and orient themselves to children’s grief. While the educators usually recognized grief and responded with compassion, some situations prompted sensemaking that questioned grief and the primacy of comforting over other concurrent activities. Based on the findings, it is important to further discuss children’s grief in ECEC and develop practices that would serve grieving young children even better.