The cultural interface of parental involvement in the Australian context

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine how educators and parents perceive, define and enact parental involvement within the context of early childhood education in Australia, and explore ways that these perceptions and definitions might come together to guide future research and practice. A total of seven educators and six parents from an EC setting in Melbourne, Australia, voluntarily responded to an open-ended survey to questions on how they perceived and explained parental involvement. Using a verbatim sorting software, the results initially highlight how the sample of Australian educators and parents explains parental involvement in ECEC, followed by how Australian educators and parents explain their role and the role of others in the context of parental involvement. These results are discussed through the conceptual lens of the cultural interface to situate the findings of this study in light of how parental involvement can shape the early childhood education and practice in Australia. We conclude the chapter by presenting a framework of parental involvement in the Australian context.