‘It is an unfair game’: the role of capital in framing the relationships between kindergarten teachers and parents

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article discusses the role of the different forms of capital within the patterns of relationships between kindergarten teachers (KTs) and parents in kindergartens located in one medium-high socioeconomic status neighborhood in Israel. The qualitative analysis conducted reveals how the parents’ cultural capital serves as a resource to advance the kindergarten in functioning and marketing, and for the KTs, to improve trust, cope with solitude, and receive parents’ feedback. The benefits for parents include furthering their children’s educational progress and enhancing their well-being, dealing with the municipal bureaucracy, and controlling the kindergarten’s operation. At the same time, it was found that capital resources may generate costs. For KTs, these may stem from parents’ interfering, crossing boundaries, and bullying, and cause KTs to placate the parents; for the parents, the costs may come in the form of anxiety about their children’s well-being.