Early Childhood Education Services: The Heart and Hearth of Communities; International Perspectives

Abstract

This international collection reconceptualizes the positions and roles of early childhood education within communities, challenging the traditional practices of involving families or partnerships with parents in early childhood services. The chapters in this volume argue that a shift in the perspectives of teachers, management, and service providers within early childhood services toward incorporating new ways of working with, alongside, and in collaboration with family, whānau (extended family), and the wider community is both timely and global. So often the involvement of children’s whānau is directed and dictated by the teachers’ agendas for supporting the educational programs or activities; for example, parents are often called on to support children’s learning assessments, mow lawns, repair equipment, or organize fund-raising events. While there has been a shift to supporting more authentic relationships between teaching staff and families in many early childhood settings across the globe, the authors in this volume argue for a shift in positioning early childhood services both as the heart of the community and as the heart and hearth of the community, rather than as just an added option to a program.