The Pursuit of Happiness: Leadership Challenges of Recognising and Supporting Child Health and Wellbeing in the Early Years
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript “The Pursuit of Happiness: Leadership Challenges of Recognising and Supporting Child Health and Wellbeing in the Early Years” addresses, through the exploration of key informants’ perceptions, about leadership approach to child health and wellbeing within the early year’s sector.
As a practitioner and researcher in innovative developments in education I truly appreciate a review of this kind, as it has the potential to inspire and guide future methodological developments in the field.
The introduction must be separated from the literature review. In the introduction authors can explain their motivations and why the issue is relevant. In some parts it seems more like a manifesto or an opinion article than a supportive element for the arguments presented after. Once again, the topic is quite relevant, but lacks further support and a better connection between the different sections of the paper.
The purpose has interest, and the manuscript has some merits. However, it has substantial flaws; my main concern is the weakness of the methodology, the lack of information about the instruments and the analysis, or the insufficient information about participants.
My suggestions would be for the authors to describe carefully all the procedures undertook and deeply assess the conclusions and the validity of the study itself, with the small sample of people it includes as representative of a broader population.
The conclusions are quite general. Also, they seem to lack Depth.
An elaborated academic discussion of the findings (this section is rather poor now), connecting results to critical issues and trends in the field of education (the initial diagnosis). This will probably involve more research work from the authors and more review of existing experiences and literature, in order to critically assess specialists views and contextualise them with other sources of information.
Author Response
Thank you for your comments.
Paper 1
As a practitioner and researcher in innovative developments in education I truly appreciate a review of this kind, as it has the potential to inspire and guide future methodological developments in the field.
1.The introduction must be separated from the literature review. In the introduction authors can explain their motivations and why the issue is relevant. In some parts it seems more like a manifesto or an opinion article than a supportive element for the arguments presented after. Once again, the topic is quite relevant, but lacks further support and a better connection between the different sections of the paper.
Response – I have amended the paper and provide more information throughout.
2.The purpose has interest, and the manuscript has some merits. However, it has substantial flaws; my main concern is the weakness of the methodology, the lack of information about the instruments and the analysis, or the insufficient information about participants.
My suggestions would be for the authors to describe carefully all the procedures undertook and deeply assess the conclusions and the validity of the study itself, with the small sample of people it includes as representative of a broader population.
Response –
I have amended this section now to highlight -
The year, sample and response hopefully this is now clear
An interactive Google forms questionnaire has gathered the findings from early years students studying at levels four, five, and six.
The students completed an open-ended question survey of five questions with their highest early years qualification being identified (Appendix 2)
The current research took place in a Further Education and Higher Education College setting throughout 2020. The researcher had access to all three levels of stu-dents who possess level three, four, and five qualifications. The sample for the research was taken from level three and four students studying Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies and the level five BA Hons in Early Childhood Studies.
3.An elaborated academic discussion of the findings (this section is rather poor now), connecting results to critical issues and trends in the field of education (the initial diagnosis). This will probably involve more research work from the authors and more review of existing experiences and literature, in order to critically assess specialists views and contextualise them with other sources of information.
Response –
I have highlighted the emerging themes from current practice which has formed the analyse.
Thematic analyses allowed for the identifying, analysing, and reporting of themes for both methods used. Braun and Clarke [30] delineate thematic analysis as an approach to recognising, analysing and presenting patterns within data sets. The process is best described as an umbrella term that is used to analyse qualitative statistics that present recognised themes [31, 32]. The process was used to gain some focus that can be discussed and address after the research is complete. The focus group was a catalyst for improving practice within the sector and will be the starting point for Managers to recognise the themes and address the issues in their setting. The following themes emerged from the study there was not a clear definition of wellbeing and participants lacked clarity in relation to their understanding of wellbeing. No one tool was favoured to measure and monitor child wellbeing. Furthermore, all participants high-lighted they need more training and qualifications to upskill them for the current challenge of supporting child health and wellbeing.
My intention for further study is to able to gather specialists views and professional contextualise in relation to the subject matter.
Reviewer 2 Report
The article deals with the issue of The Pursuit of Happiness. The author clearly defines the purpose of the work. The strong point of the article is the literature review, while the weak point is the description of the methodology.
Author write that: "This study critically examined the topic of child health and wellbeing within thirtytwo early years’ " - I don't really understand what the author means when he wrote thirtytwo early years'. I propose to expand the issue.
Author write that: "The researcher had access to all three levels of students who possess level three, four, and five qualifications." - in the research part, there is no specific information on when the research was conducted (year), on what sample and how the respondents were selected?
The research methodology appears to be very chaotic. The author does not explain in detail how he carried out the research. For example: author write that: "After establishing their level of qualifications" - There is no information on how the qualifications were assessed.
In case of subquestions which the author presented, does it mean that the respondent could have treated them as open-ended questions? The author does not explain this in the text. There are no results from these questions in the paper. In Table 1 there is issue theme 1, theme 2 - I don't know what's going on. I propose to name these topics or include a legend under the table.
Author Response
Thank you for your comments
Paper two
The article deals with the issue of The Pursuit of Happiness. The author clearly defines the purpose of the work. The strong point of the article is the literature review, while the weak point is the description of the methodology.
1.Author write that: "This study critically examined the topic of child health and wellbeing within thirtytwo early years’ " - I don't really understand what the author means when he wrote thirtytwo early years'. I propose to expand the issue.
Response – I have checked the journal and it now states thirty-two practitioners/ or practitioners views or thirty-two early years’ settings which evaluated the role of the practitioner in first to recognise the signs of low child health and wellbeing,
2.Author write that: "The researcher had access to all three levels of students who possess level three, four, and five qualifications." - in the research part, there is no specific information on when the research was conducted (year), on what sample and how the respondents were selected?
Response – I have amended this section now to highlight -
The year, sample and response hopefully this is now clear
An interactive Google forms questionnaire has gathered the findings from early years students studying at levels four, five, and six.
The students completed an open-ended question survey of five questions with their highest early years qualification being identified (Appendix 2)
3.The research methodology appears to be very chaotic. The author does not explain in detail how he carried out the research. For example: author write that: "After establishing their level of qualifications" - There is no information on how the qualifications were assessed.
Response – I have added to the methods section which now
The current research took place in a Further Education and Higher Education College setting throughout 2020. The researcher had access to all three levels of stu-dents who possess level three, four, and five qualifications. The sample for the research was taken from level three and four students studying Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies and the level five BA Hons in Early Childhood Studies.
4.In case of sub questions which the author presented, does it mean that the respondent could have treated them as open-ended questions?
Response –Explained in text now
The students completed an open-ended question survey of five questions with their highest early years qualification being identified (Appendix 2). The qualitative method has taken the form of an Open-Ended questionnaire/survey allowing the respondents much more freedom and flexibility to provide their responses (Hamilton and Ravenscroft, 2019).
5.There are no results from these questions in the paper. In Table 1 there is issue theme 1, theme 2 - I don't know what's going on. I propose to name these topics or include a legend under the table.
Response – I have made it clear these are the emerging themes that form the Thematic analyses.
Added to text - Thematic analyses allowed for the identifying, analysing, and reporting of themes for both methods used. Braun and Clarke [30] delineate thematic analysis as an approach to recognising, analysing and presenting patterns within data sets. The process is best described as an umbrella term that is used to analyse qualitative statistics that present recognised themes [31, 32]. The process was used to gain some focus that can be discussed and address after the research is complete. The focus group was a catalyst for improving practice within the sector and will be the starting point for Managers to recognise the themes and address the issues in their setting. The following themes emerged from the study there was not a clear definition of wellbeing and participants lacked clarity in relation to their understanding of wellbeing. No one tool was favoured to measure and monitor child wellbeing. Furthermore, all participants high-lighted they need more training and qualifications to upskill them for the current challenge of supporting child health and wellbeing.
Data collection and coding
Table 1. Coding of data to form thematic analyses from early year’s practitioner’s questionnaires
Table 2. Coding of data from themed focus groups.
