Helpers, mothers, and preachers: the multiple roles and discourses of family child care providers in an African-American community

Abstract

This article examines the communication and discourse styles of African American family child care providers serving low-income families. In particular, I look at the kinds of advice and help providers offer parents. Interpretive techniques borrowed from literary theory are employed in the analysis of qualitative interview transcripts conducted with 7 African American family child care providers. The analysis reveals the ways providers draw on both mainstream, professional ideas of how to provide appropriate family support and more indigenous conceptions of effective help-giving in an African American community. Providers’ abilities to use communication strategies from both the professional world of education and from their own cultural world indicate a strength that may not be recognized in training classes or program planning. The multiple discourses–both professional and personal–illustrated in these interviews suggest alternative models of family support and effective help-giving for early childhood caregivers and educators. Suggestions for how training programs could build on providers’ strengths are offered.