Teachers' and Families' Perspectives in Early Childhood Education and Care

Early Childhood Education in the 21st Century Vol. II

Sivanes Phillipson, Susanne Garvis, Sivanes Phillipson, Susanne Garvis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351397889
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación infantil

The second volume in this Early Childhood Education in the 21st Century: International Teaching, Family and Policy Perspectives miniseries focuses on teacher and family perspectives of early childhood education and care from 19 different countries around the world. The aim of this volume is to articulate the key components of teacher education and family practices that impact young children's education and care. Each country featured in this volume presents its own unique perspective in relation to the cultural and societal constraints around teacher training and/or family practices and the thinking around those practices that are important for early childhood development. Offering a unique insight into how teachers and families work together in different countries, the book is essential reading for early childhood educators, researchers, early childhood organisations, policy makers and those interested to know more about early childhood within an international perspective.

1Teachers’ and families’ perspectives in early childhood education and care in the 21st century

Sivanes Phillipson and Susanne Garvis

Introduction

Teachers and families make valuable contributions to early childhood education and care (ECEC). Their contributions come in different forms with research fully recognising the importance of what teachers and families do for children’s education and care in the early years globally (Melhuish et al., 2015; OECD, 2017). Whilst families fundamentally spend more time with their children when they are very young, teachers increasingly play a bigger role in children’s development. Hence, teachers are seen as important as families in ensuring positive child development and learning (OECD, 2018). Of course, conversations and interactions between teachers and families and the wider communities become crucial in articulating successful child outcomes. The OECD reports (2015, 2017, 2018) clearly outline teacher engagement with families and the wider community as crucial, not only for teachers’ own professional development but also for ensuring quality teaching and learning and community engagement.

The first volume of this three-book series has shown how each of the 19 countries showcased has its own narrative for ECEC. Though it was found that each country is unique in its own way, the common thread that holds the narrative together is the intention to provide the best outcomes for the young children in the countries. As discussed in the first volume, the 19 countries represented low to high economic statuses with a variety of government systems and cultures. Countries like Finland have had well-established early childhood education and care systems, while others such as Korea have fairly young early childhood education and care systems. Some countries such as Singapore have aligned early childhood education and care with formal schooling systems, while other countries such as Sweden have placed early childhood education and care within family and social services. The diversity showcased in the volumes in this series provides opportunities for further debate in the context of ECEC development.

This second volume focusses on teacher and family perspectives of early childhood education and care from the 19 countries introduced in the first volume. The aim of this volume is to articulate the key components of teacher education and family practices that impact young children’s education and care. Each country in this volume presents its own unique perspective in relation to the cultural and societal constraints around teacher training and/or family practices, and the thinking around those practices that are important for early childhood development. Chapters in this volume focus on one or a combination of factors that evolve around the perspectives of educators and families in their involvement in early childhood education and care of young children. The three factors are:

1.Workforce conditions, qualifications and training for teachers

2.Engaging families and communities

3.Cultural constraints and gains around home–school partnership

The first factor is designed to highlight the relevant country’s workforce situations that influence the quality and processes related to ECEC. In particular, workforce conditions, teacher qualifications and teachers’ basic training and professional development are some of the targeted discussions covered in this book. This focus is vital, as seen by international research’s emphasis on the importance of paying attention to and addressing issues of quality of the workforce in ECEC (OECD, 2018). The second factor highlights how families and communities contribute to the advancement of children’s early development and learning. In some countries, family and community involvement in the development of an ECEC framework have been relatively new, while in other countries, especially the Scandinavian countries, family and community involvement has been long-standing practice through community preschools. The third factor demands that authors in this volume provide insights into their countries’ cultural contexts in relation to how ECEC is set up and operationalised with an appropriately trained workforce and family–community involvement.

Outline of the book

Each chapter author/s was asked to present his or her country perspectives on these three factors, choosing either the workforce topic or the family–community topic as the basis of research and analysis. The intention was to allow authors to explore each of the factors from the angle of their research findings, while at the same time sharing their knowledge with people from other contexts and cultures. As editors, just as with our approach in the first volume, we did not want to impose too many boundaries on the authors. Hence, the approach we take in this volume recognises that each context and culture is different with a unique presentation of ideas and research findings from each country perspective.

Following the factors outlined earlier, the chapters in this volume are divided between those that showcase aspects of workforce, aspects of parents and family contribution and teacher–parent partnerships. The Canada, Chile, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Russia and the Netherlands chapters focus on workforce, teacher and early childhood education quality. The Australia, Korea, Serbia, Singapore and Sweden chapters present research and review of parent involvement and contribution towards the development of children. The remaining chapters, covering Denmark, Greece, New Zealand and Turkey, discuss the usefulness of parents and teachers working together for the benefit of ECEC. The chapters include:

•Gerarda Richards, Sivanes Phillipson and Ann Gervasoni (Chapter 2) explore parental perceptions of the importance of early learning in preparation for formal schooling in the Australian context. Families believed holding a pencil, comparing a collection and counting, along with naming shapes, were essential before attending school. The chapter focusses on describing how parents considered themselves their children’s first teachers along with educators in transitioning to formal schooling.

•In Chapter 3, Rachel Langford and Brooke Richardson show that in Canada, the workforce is underqualified and poorly compensated, with difficult working conditions. They argue that these workforce conditions contribute to Canada’s low rating on the provision of ECEC services amongst industrially advanced countries. However, they also believe that there is room for change in the strategies and government initiatives for professionalisation of the workforce.

•Macarena Silva, the author of Chapter 4, discusses how Chile needs to focus on early comprehension skills in order to provide quality language experiences at the preschool level. Silva argues that more thought should be put into how teacher training is actually providing the knowledge that teachers need in order to foster children’s learning.

•In Chapter 5, Anja Marschall proposes that parent–educator collaborations should be all about understanding the everyday aspects of children’s holistic development. Parents and educators need to confidently fulfil children’s needs by understanding that although there are black and white boundaries in their relationship, these boundaries can be rather fuzzy.

•The Estonian chapter (Chapter 6) has authors Mikser et al. present findings of a nationwide survey of preschool teachers in Estonia in relation to their views and expectations of reform policies in their professionalism. The preliminary findings of the study show that most Estonian preschool teachers do not favour the academic qualities proposed in the past decade. Such a finding demands a rethinking of the definition of academic qualities that are more amenable and meaningful to preschool teachers within the context of the practice and workforce.

•Chapter 7 continues on from the first volume’s discussion with the authors, Hilppö et al., extending their research on compassion as a pedagogical approach in improving workforce quality in Finland.

•In Chapter 8, Claudia M. Ueffing and Heidi Harju-Luukkainen describe how inclusion and diversity in ECEC is perceived in Germany. The authors explore teacher training and mentoring within this context of inclusion and diversity with the aim of showing how better-informed teachers of diversity can promote children’s academic growth and personal development equitably.

•Maria Birbili and Ifigenia Christodoulou (Chapter 9) provide an overview of the current policies and practices on parental involvement in ECEC in Greece. The chapter discusses how early childhood professionals involve parents and families in their everyday practice – showing a need to delve deeper into how the relationship between teachers and parents will have to be developed beyond drop-off and pick-up times.

•In Chapter 10, Kristín Dýrfjörð highlights the struggles preschool teachers in Iceland experience by reviewing the history of the country’s economic development in past and recent years. Though Iceland’s economic situation has improved tremendously in recent years, preschool teachers still experience poorer working conditions. Dýrfjörð stresses that the solution is to look into ways to retain good teachers in the workforce.

•In Chapter 11, SoJung Seo describes the findings from her parent empowerment program (Gangnam Parent Empowerment Program [GPEP]), specifically targeted to parents of young children (aged 0 to 36 months) enrolled in a local childcare support centre in Seoul, Korea. Modelled on the ECEC specialist program for in-service teachers, which entails direct and indirect components of participants’ experiences, direct interventions increase parents’ self-efficacy, heighten their acquisition of positive parenting skills and provide further opportunities to reflect on how parents can positively impact their children’s development.

•Chapter 12 authors Aspden et al. explore how partnerships with parents/whānau are embedded and enacted individually within contextually and culturally appropriate approaches. These approaches are seen as part of the core aspirations for early childhood education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The authors also discuss how these partnership efforts are affected by changes in funding and policy for initial teacher education (ITE) for student teachers, and continued provision of professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities for teachers.

•Elisabeth Bjørnestad, Anne-Grethe Baustad and Marit Alvestad (Chapter 13) examine the applicability of the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scales – Revised (ITERS-R) as a self-assessment tool for assessing pedagogical work and activities as described in the Norwegian Framework Plan. The authors suggest that new items that are more context specific should be developed for the Norwegian ECEC.

•In Chapter 14, Shiyan et al. discuss the background of preschool education in Russia and its influence on teacher training preparation, including the organisational framework and content of future preschool teacher education in two levels (university and teacher training [vocational] college).

•In Chapter 15, Tijana Bogovac presents an overview of participation of parents in ECEC in Serbia based on legal and policy documents. Using document and policy analysis, Bogovac stresses that parental involvement needs to become transparent for all ECEC actors in Serbia.

•Sivanes Phillipson, Eugenia Koh and Salwa Sujuddin describe the context of Singapore parents’ aspirations for their children in Chapter 16. Combining survey data and verbatim analysis of news and televised forums, the authors provide a glimpse into a Singapore parental mindset that lean towards holistic early education and academic outcomes.

•Authors Pia Williams, Sonja Sheridan and Susanne Garvis (Chapter 17) provide an overview of how dynamic changes within the ecological system of the Swedish ECEC have influenced preschool teachers, teacher education and families. The chapter focusses on how Swedish parents and community believe in investing in children’s wellbeing through a strong provision for access to early childhood education and care. Further recommendations around catering to the needs of diverse families are also discussed.

•In Chapter 18, Olivia Lin Kuan-Ling outlines in detail the reconceptualisation of story-telling as an effective curriculum practice in Taiwanese ECEC. She also highlights how a collaborative relationship between preschool teachers and parents when engaging in resilience-orientated story-telling can be an effective way to contribute to young children’s and their families’ resilience development.

•Elisabeth Duursma and Paul Leseman (Chapter 19) review and discuss at length the importance of professional development and quality teacher training in the Netherlands. Teacher education is important not only to increase high-quality teaching and learning but also to empower teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage diverse (immigrant) parents in contributing to ECEC.

•Chapter 20 author Şenil Ünlü Çetin reviews key research and presents a number of issues surrounding ECEC in Turkey. The issues highlight that Turkey’s early childhood education system is not organised in a way that provides teachers and parents with strong communication opportunities. The author also no...