Nursery home visits: Rhetoric and realities

Abstract

The importance of home–school relationships between parents and practitioners in early childhood settings is widely accepted. This article discusses the effects of the level of involvement and the nature of practitioner–parent relationships in early years settings in England on the basis of a two part study that examined parents’ experience of home visits conducted before the children begin nursery. The first part of the study, a questionnaire survey of 52 teachers/practitioners from different nurseries in the south-east of England, established that 81 percent of these nurseries conduct a home visit before children began nursery. The second part of the study, based on one-to-one semi-structured interviews with eight early years practitioners and five parents, highlighted the tensions that seem to exist between them with regard to these visits. The main themes identified are: power, training and time. As a result of these findings, this article proposes that the nature of practitioner–parent relationships is determined by: 1) the training received by teachers and practitioners to work with parents; and 2) teachers’ and practitioners’ reflection on their practice.