A sense of calling is defined as the experience of work as both personally meaningful and socially valuable. It is increasingly recognized as one of the factors contributing to individuals’ job satisfaction, work engagement, and work effectiveness. Research indicates that individuals who perceive their work as a calling achieve better work outcomes, maintain these outcomes over a longer period of time, and at the same time, their dedication to their profession also has a positive impact on the people who benefit from their professional work. Despite its significance, the concept of calling at work among preschool educators in Slovenia remains unexplored, even though preschool educators play an exceptionally responsible role in children’s early years. Existing Slovenian research has primarily focused on teachers in elementary and secondary education, university teachers, and special education teachers. As part of this thesis, we investigated how a sense of calling is present among preschool educators, how it is expressed in their daily work, and whether it varies depending on their workplace and years of work experience. The research was part of the project Character strengths and well-being of students and education professionals. The research sample included 236 preschool educators employed in Slovenian kindergartens with varying range of work experience and occupational roles, including: preschool teacher assistants, preschool teachers, counsellors, early intervention preschool teachers, and assistant principals. The results of the study showed that 94.07% of the participating preschool educators reported perceiving a sense of calling in their work. This sense of calling is strongly reflected in their perception of the importance of having a positive impact on children and contributing to their development and progress, as well as recognizing their responsibility for the best quality of educational practice. The results further indicate no statistically significant differences in the sense of calling based on years of professional experience among preschool educators, or between preschool teachers and preschool teacher assistants. The results of our research contribute significantly to the understanding of the sense of calling of preschool teachers and preschool teachers’ assistants, as it has not yet been researched in early childhood education in Slovenia. Sense of calling contributes to positive work outcomes and job satisfaction of preschool educators, hence to high-quality pedagogical work and good relationships with children in kindergarten. Therefore, it is important to systematically foster the sense of calling systematically from the undergraduate level onwards and to encourage preschool educators in practice to become more aware of their sense of calling and recognize its potential positive effects.
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