The Involved, Engaged or Partnership Parents in Early Childhood Education and Care

Anders Rade

doi:10.13189/ujer.2020.080710

Abstract

The parental relationship in ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) service forms a key factor for its quality. This relationship is also complex and problematic and can be understood in different ways. There is a lack of research about the parental relationship in ECEC compared with schools. However, some researches have revealed the importance of a functional parental relationship in ECEC but also that the relationship can challenge the professional task of the teachers. One way to understand the parental relationship is study it out of two different frameworks, a vertical or horizontal framework. The vertical framework regards the teachers as experts and with asymmetrical, involved or engagement parental relationship. The horizontal framework regards both teachers and parents as experts and with a symmetrical partnership parental relationship. This review of research has scrutinised how the parental relationship in ECEC is described based on a division into levels as parental involvement, engagement or partnership relation. All three levels were identified in the 22 articles studied, but with a slight domination of the parental partnership. Four advantages of the parental relationship have been identified, quality-indicator, empowerment of parents and teachers, impact on future student academic achievement and flexible relationship. Three problems have been identified, different roles of parents and teachers, discrimination and complex relationship. One conclusion is that the parental relationship is of great importance to the ECEC service, but that it is more realistic to consider this as a balance between vertically and horizontally-framed parental relationships in ECEC services.

Highlights

As a result of growing pressure on children to acquire specific knowledge and skills from an early age, ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) services play an increasingly important role in supporting families and giving children a good start in their life-long learning
One conclusion of this review is that parental relationship in ECEC can be divided broadly in three levels: parental involvement, engagement and partnership
The fact that ten articles of 22 articles focus on parental partnership and that eight other articles use this concept to a certain extent to indicate a dominance of this level in the area of parental relationships (82% of the articles use the concept)

Summary

Introduction

As a result of growing pressure on children to acquire specific knowledge and skills from an early age, ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) services play an increasingly important role in supporting families and giving children a good start in their life-long learning, Parental relationships i.e. relations between parents and the institutions, in the education of children of all ages have been regarded as important in research literature for at least 50 years (Cox, 2005; Epstein, 2018; Hornby & Lafaele, 2011), and have been recognised as a key factor in ECEC services since the time of Froebel in the 19th century (Pramling Samuelsson et al, 2006). There is evidence in research that the relationship between parents and ECEC exerts a positive effect on child achievement in the later school career (Arnold et al, 2008; Galindo & Sheldon, 2012; Hujala et al, 2009; Janssen & Vanderbroeck, 2018; Rimm-Kaufmann & Pianta, 2001). Parents can increase the quality of an educational programme, which is especially important when it comes to children in their early years as they have closer relationship with their parents than older children (Rouse & OBrian, 2017)

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