Previous research has explored various aspects of multidisciplinary collaboration in ECEC, highlighting the importance of professional competence, expertise, and effective interaction among team members (Bruder, 2010: Douglass, 2019). However, there is a significant research gap in understanding how these elements contribute to relational expertise specifically within the context of ECE teams (Cooper, 2018).                                                              This study addresses this gap by examining how ECE employees perceive factors related to relational expertise, such as interaction and professional development. Relational expertise refers to the development of professional competence and expertise through interactions within a team (Ukkonen-Mikkola et al., 2021) and as previous studies has shown, collaboration within workers increases job-satisfaction and commitment to work (Kangas et al., 2022) and facilitate the implementation of changes in early childhood education units (Omdal & Roland, 2020). 

                      This study investigates the dimensions of relational expertise within multidisciplinary early childhood education (ECEC) teams, addressing the following research questions: (1) What aspects of relational expertise can be identified from scales used in previous studies? (2) To what extent is the work experience of ECEC employees associated with their perception of relational expertise? (3) To what extent is the well-being of ECE employees associated with their perception of relational expertise? (4) How do the experiences of relational expertise differ between ECEC teachers and childcare workers? The goal is to understand how ECEC workers perceive factors related to relational expertise, such as interaction and professional development (Edwards, 2017). By addressing these challenges and exploring the concept of relational expertise, this research aims to contribute valuable insights into the development of effective multidisciplinary ECEC teams and also investigate how relational expert can be estimated trough already existing scales for there doesn´t exists one. The argument is that in ECEC, expertise develops through professional growth in collaboration with others, leading to shared knowledge and increased team competence (Lee et al., 2022).

The study utilizes data from the Interaction, Learning, and Development (VUOKKO) longitudinal study (Lerkkanen & Salminen, 2015–2019), which has followed approximately 200 children born in 2013 in Central Finland at multiple time points. The study has also surveyed the views of daycare staff regarding their professional competence and well-being (Lerkkanen & Salminen, 2015–2019). This study used teachers' questionnaires about occupational well-being, including job satisfaction, organizational climate, and professional development (N=203). The scales used in this study were Job Satisfaction, which included questions from the Parental Stress Inventory (Gerris et al., 1993) and pre-COOL Consortium (2012); Organizational Climate, used in the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey (Bloom, 2010); and Professional Development, used in prior research in ECEC provisions (Slot et al., 2015). This study employs variance analysis (ANOVA) and regression analysis to analyze the data, providing insights into the relationships between work experience, well-being, and perceptions of relational expertise among ECE employees.

Expected outcomes: (2) The longer the work experience the more relational axperts aspects indentified (3) The better the well-being the more relational experts aspects indetified (4) Experiences doesn´t differ between professions

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