Between Care and Curriculum: Teachers’ Perspectives on Supporting Social and Emotional Well-being in Early Years Classrooms in Ireland

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Research in Education, Teaching and Learning

Year: 2026

[PDF]

Between Care and Curriculum: Teachers' Perspectives on Supporting Social and Emotional Well-being in Early Years Classrooms in Ireland

Dr. Clare Halligan

ABSTRACT:

This paper examines a fundamental tension shaping early years education in Ireland: the conflict between teachers’ deep ethic of care and the intensifying demands of curriculum delivery and policy accountability.
As well-being gains prominence in Ireland’s redeveloped Primary Curriculum Framework (NCCA, 2023), a critical question arises can policy aspiration translate into classroom reality? This study investigates how early years primary school teachers understand, experience, and enact well-being support within a system that frequently constrains the very practices it purports to value.
Employing qualitative secondary data analysis, the study re-analysed semi-structured interview transcripts from eight early years teachers across six schools participating in the longitudinal Children’s School Lives (CSL) study. Braun and Clarke’s (2006; 2022) thematic analysis was applied, generating four anchor themes: Understanding of Well-being; Relationships and Partnerships; Pedagogies to Support Children’s Well-being; and Professional and Personal Challenges.
Findings reveal that teachers hold holistic, relational conceptualisations of well-being that extend well beyond curriculum definitions. Relational pedagogy and play are identified as central vehicles for well-being support, yet teachers routinely encounter structural barriers curriculum overload, inadequate professional development, and unaddressed emotional labour that impede their capacity to enact these values. Teachers with Aistear (Early Childhood Curriculum Framework) training demonstrated markedly greater confidence in play-based practice, underscoring professional development as a critical policy lever.
This paper argues that without systemic recognition of the emotional labour of early years teaching and meaningful investment in practitioner support, well-being risks remaining a policy intention rather than a lived experience for children and teachers alike. Implications for curriculum design, teacher education, and school leadership are discussed.

Keywords: Wellbeing And Care, Early Years, Primary School Teachers