“We tend to underestimate the children!” – a qualitative analysis of preschool teachers’ views on child-parent-teacher relationship-building during preschool transition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Upon preschool enrollment, the child-teacher relationship becomes important for the child’s continued development. We suggest that parents may be essential in supporting the establishment of such relationships from the first weeks of the child’s preschool enrollment, the so-called “introduction process”. Recent data indicates that Nordic preschools organize this aspect of preschool introduction differently, but no empirically informed knowledge-base exists on how to best support positive family-teacher interactions. To enrich this sparse topic, we conducted focus groups with Swedish preschool professionals (N = 31) to qualitatively acquire experiences and reflections on child-adult interactions during preschool introduction. Thematic analysis revealed two themes, centering around emotional security and the need to introduce the child and the parent(s). While emphasizing the importance of the parent’s presence near the child during the introduction process, dilemmas and conflicting ideas about how to arrange child-adult interactions were revealed, with potential implications for the child’s transition and the child-teacher relationship-building.