This month, Kristine Parsons RECE, Director of Operations at RisingOaks Early Learning Ontario in Kitchener, begins her fourth – and final – term as Council Chair. As Chair, she’s been a true champion for the profession. Under her leadership, the College successfully navigated the pandemic and launched a new strategic plan focused on the goals of proactive public protection and collaborative leadership and engagement. Prior to her tenure as Chair, she was a Council member, and supported the development of the College’s Statement of Commitment to Anti-Racism and several practice resources on topics such as communication and collaboration, professional relationships, child development and protecting children from sexual abuse.
For Kristine, high-quality child care is a result of highly skilled and trained early childhood educators who are joyful about the vital role they play in the lives of children and families. Supporting the well-being of early educators plays an important role in this. Built into the College’s strategic plan, and part of the legacy she herself wants to leave, is a healthy, resilient, flourishing profession. We talked to Kristine to learn about ways to set a foundation for the well-being and resiliency of educators.
Leading with curiosity
“Our well-being is our mind, our body and our soul, and sometimes they are out of alignment,” says Kristine. Keeping in mind the interconnectedness of how we think, act and feel helps encourage compassion and grace toward others. A backache might not just be from sitting all day, but rather from the stress that someone is feeling, she says. “If we can ask, What’s happened or What is happening to you, instead of What’s wrong with you, we can be a lot more gracious. The more gracious I am, the less judgmental I am, the more curious I am,” says Kristine. “Personally, as I embrace this idea of being gracious, it is actually impacting my own well-being.”
Psychological safety
Before educators can feel comfortable sharing what’s happening to them, they need to feel psychologically safe. This requires a culture of open, honest communication and making space for tough conversations. “Trust can be a tricky thing. We build it one marble at a time in the jar,” she says. “Sometimes we find that where it starts is in relationships: the more someone feels seen, heard, acknowledged and understood, the more they feel they belong.”
To support relationship-building, meetings should be spaces for genuine conversations. “We’ve worked hard to use staff meetings for adult conversations: collaboration, networking, consensus-building, problem solving. And not always a place for receiving assignments, or reminders of things that need to be done. Or not always something to be ‘talked at’ about.”
When it comes to relationship-building, she also offers that leaders can leverage the same tools and skills that RECEs have in building relationships with children, in their own relationships with educator staff. As RECEs, she says, “we spend a great deal of time creating safe, supportive and nurturing environments for children. The same effort needs to be given to creating this environment for educators. The children’s learning environment is the educators’ working environment. We create safe environments for children to take risks and develop life skills. Educators also require environments where they feel psychologically safe to share ideas, add to their work environment, learn from mistakes without fear.”
Self-care
As an employer, RisingOaks recognizes the importance of well-being, and has worked hard – and continues to do so – to provide benefits to its staff. Kristine encourages staff to take advantage of the benefits for things like visits to the dentist, massage therapist or physiotherapist. They’ve also changed their sick days to well-being days, to allow staff to plan for wellness-based time off.
Whether or not an employer is able to provide a benefits program, Kristine emphasizes the need for self-care practices. These can come in the form of small, intentional habits, actions or rituals that foster rest or restoration. To nurture her own well-being so that she is equipped to support her staff, Kristine models self-care through intention and scheduling. One self-care activity she does is to notice and photograph small ‘delights’ in the day. When her emotional bucket is low, she looks at her camera roll and is reminded of all the delight she has experienced. Her team does this with the children as well, making photo books of delightful moments they can share with a child when they feel stressed or need some space.
If carving out time for self-care in the day-to-day feels like a hurdle, she suggests scheduling time for activities like walks or connecting with others, or indulging in your favourite coffee or coffee-shop snack. Some members of her team keep a blanket and pillow in their cars, to create a private space for reading during a work break. “Find the things that you like and then make sure you schedule those. They don’t have to cost money,” she says.
As she practices self-care and leading with grace and curiosity, Kristine looks ahead at her final year as Chair with the same enthusiasm and commitment to the profession that led her to join to the Council. She’s particularly excited about supporting the College’s progress in centering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging into all of its work, and its efforts toward Indigenous reconciliation. One thing she can rely on to keep her fueled over the coming year, is joy. “Even after 35 years in the profession, I still have so much to give because there is something joyful every day.”
Read more from Kristine:
- Council Chair Kristine Parsons on fostering workplace environments where all belong
- Council Chair Kristine Parsons on leading and thriving – together – in turbulent times
- Re-elected Council Chair Kristine Parsons on building bridges toward a strong, sustainable workforce
- In conversation with Kristine Parsons
- On leadership: In conversation with new Council Chair Kristine Parsons