Early Childhood Educator Time Use

Full description

Data is from a pilot project to develop a random sample time use diary (TUD) suitable for use with early childhood educators. TUD methodology is most typically used in social sciences research to record a person’s activities as they naturally and sequentially occur in daily life. TUD data are collected from adults or older children via self-report (typically pencil-and-paper records) which can be supplemented, or replaced by, a face-to-face or telephone interview with a researcher.

In the pilot stage, three hours of time use data per day will be collected from (up to) 30 educators over a three week period - 15 work days. The collection for the pilot project is expected to be 2 - 3 terabytes. When the full project is funded, it is anticipated to grow by a further 20 terabytes that includes: TUD – 1000 hours data collected on ipad; focus group - 50 hours audio; and case study - 50 hours video. Data is collected via a smartphone application uploaded directly to a research database where it will be converted into useable form (e.g. Excel) and then uploaded to the ReDS site as a central archive and sharing space.

Initially (August – December 2014) the data will be in the private research domain as the core research team, across three universities, undertake the research. From January 2015 the data will be made open (mediated by the research team) and will be advertised as open (mediated access).

The pilot project has been funded through funds made available through the Excellence in Research in Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network.The pilot project will be for a community of (up to 10) researchers in the School of Teacher Education at CSU, School of Early Childhood at QUT and Discipline of Sociology, University of New England.

The collection will be of particular relevance to researchers in the fields of i) early childhood education – especially in regards to workforce – and ii) workforce participation.