The current study aimed to understand parent involvement in early childhood education institutions from the viewpoint of teachers and parents. The purpose of the study is to offer substantial help for seeking effective operation method of parent invol...
The current study aimed to understand parent involvement in early childhood education institutions from the viewpoint of teachers and parents. The purpose of the study is to offer substantial help for seeking effective operation method of parent involvement program in the early childhood education field through in-depth analysis of parent involvement recognized by teachers and parents, parent's interest and satisfaction in parent involvement, benefits from parent involvement recognized by teachers and parents, and difficulties and needs of parents and teachers related w ith parent involvement using a qualitative research method.
Research problems established in the study are as follows.
First of all, what do teachers and parents think about parent involvement in early childhood education institutions?
Secondly, how do parents cooperate in parent involvement?
Thirdly, what do teachers and parents think about benefits from parent involvement in early childhood education institutions?
Fourthly, what are difficulties and needs of teachers and parents related with parent involvement?
The subjects of the current study were three early childhood education institutions in Gyeonggi-do performing parent involvement programs. Those three institutions were selected by visiting the institutions on the recommendation of teachers and parents, and conducting preliminary observations and interviews. All of them (S Nursery School, D Nursery School and O Kindergarten) are currently conducting parent involvement programs and they have different socio-economic backgrounds. The reason the three early childhood education institutions with different socio-economic backgrounds were selected was for understanding the reality of parent involvement among children and their parents with various backgrounds. The researcher observed parent involvement activities in classes of children at the age of three, four and five years old in each selected institution, and then conducted individual in-depth interview with 9 parents and 9 teachers in total by selecting them by age of children in each institution.
The results of the study can be summarized focusing on the above research problems as follows.
1. Parent involvement recognized by teachers and parents
It was found that parent involvement recognized by teachers and parents can be classified into three categories; first, parent involvement as family involvement; second, parent involvement as a means; and third, parent involvement as a joint fosterer.
As a result of the current study, it was found that some early childhood education institutions changed the term 'parent involvement' into 'family involvement' since parents are not the main fosterer in some cases due to changes in family types. Also the teachers and the parents regarded 'parent involvement' as a means. That is, the teachers regarded parent involvement activity as a means of publicity for an early childhood education institutions, and similarly, the parents regarded parent involvement activity as a means of evaluating an early childhood education institutions. On the other hand, it was observed that some teachers and parents thought that the meaning of parent involvement is cooperation between an early childhood education institutions and a family through connection as joint fosters for a child.
2. Parent's interest and satisfaction in parent involvement
Among various parent involvement activities, it was found that activities in which parents and children can enjoy together such as 'parent involvement class' and 'family sports day' presented the highest satisfaction. On the contrary, parent involvement activities requiring passive involvement of parents such as children's presentation, family message and a lecture meeting presented low satisfaction. In addition, parents' satisfaction of communication using homepage was assessed differently by institution.
3. Benefits recognized by teachers and parents from parent involvement in early childhood education institutions
As a result of the current study, it was found that benefits recognized by teachers and parents from parent involvement in early childhood education institutions were improvement of mutual understanding, activation of communication, increase in family intimacies and improvement of children's confidence.
First, the teachers and the parents thought that parent involvement improved mutual understanding by improving parents' understanding of teachers, parents' understanding of children and teachers' understanding of children. Second, the teachers considered that communication can be activated through parent involvement using family message, small notebook for communication and telephone. Thirdly, it was also found from interviews with the teachers and the parents that family intimacies increased through parent involvement activities in which parents participate in person, voluntary service work, observation and child-fostering techniques learned from lecture meetings. Fourth, the teachers and the parents recognized that children's confidence improved through parent involvement such as activities in which parents participate in person and voluntary service work.
4. Difficulties and needs of parents and teachers related with parent involvement
It was found that difficulties of teachers related with parent involvement were a burden of events, concern about isolated children during parent involvement, and embarrassment of changes in children's attitude. A burden of events was divided into psychological stress, increase of workload and embarrassment of changes in children's attitude. On the other hand, difficulties of parents were difficulty of a family with two children in an institution, unhappiness of parents with passive children, and desire for substantial and various parent involvement events.