Her thesis: “Do all parents take part? Views of quality and collaboration in kindergarten”
Abstract
In the doctoral thesis I discuss parents’ views of quality in kindergarten and their collaboration with kindergarten. Almost every parent with children under the age of five are related to a kindergarten in Norway, as 97, 1 % of all children between three and five years of age attend kindergarten in 2018 (Statistisk sentralbyrå, 2019). Parents have a legal right to participate and collaborate with staff in kindergarten.
Previous research find that parents’ engagement and involvement in kindergarten and school have significant meaning for children’s well-being (Deforges & Abouchaar, 2003; Lareau, 2011; Sylva mfl, 2004). For several years, there have been a political emphasis on quality in kindergarten, where one of the goals is to strengthen kindergarten as a learning area (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2008, s.6).
Parents’ opinions and experiences of what might be good quality can influence their expectations to kindergarten and collaboration with the staff.
The superior thesis question is: What are parents’ views of quality in kindergarten, and how do parents experience the collaboration between home and kindergarten? The thesis question is further explored and discussed in three research-questions:
1) What are parents and centre leaders opinions of quality in kindergarten?
2) What are parents’ perceptions of learning in kindergarten, and how may their views be understood related to the traditional Nordic kindergarten?
3) What are the views of a good collaboration, from parents with different backgrounds, and how may they experience daily meetings with the kindergarten staff?
The research-questions are discussed in the three articles in the thesis. Parents and centre leaders opinions about quality in kindergarten is discussed in the first article: Stakeholders´ opinions of quality in Norwegian kindergartens.
Parents perceptions of learning in kindergarten and how their views may be understood related to the Nordic kindergarten tradition, is discussed in the second article: The visible and invisible kindergarten pedagogic – Parents views of children’s learning in kindergarten. The third research-question is discussed in the third article: Collaboration in kindergarten – «Birds of a feather flock together»? Perspectives on collaboration from parents with different backgrounds.
The discussions in the thesis are based on data from quantitative and qualitative methodical approaches. The first part of the thesis explore existing data from quantitative surveys with parents and centre leaders, who participated in the research project Better Provision for Norway’s Children in ECEC. Results from the quantitative surveys, are presented in the first article. The majority of the thesis is based on data from qualitative semi-structured research-interviews with 23 parents from nine kindergartens in three counties in Norway.
Results from the surveys show that parents and centre leaders are mostly agree that children-centred and democratic values are characteristics of a good kindergarten. There are variation between parents and centre leaders opinions about learning, numbers and letters in kindergarten. More parents than centre leaders find learning, numbers and letters important.
Further, more parents who received compulsory, upper secondary and vocational education, than parents with a bachelor´s or master´s degree totally agreed that a good kindergarten is a place where children’s learning is most important and staff work with letters and numbers with the children.
Results from the qualitative research-interviews show that parent’s perceptions of children’s learning in kindergarten vary across their social and cultural background and their different experiences with kindergarten. Many parents describe learning as an individual acquisition of a visual content or learning-result. Some parents also relate children’s learning to social interactions (Illeris, 2018).
Parents emphasize both visual learning and results, which can be related to a visible pedagogic, and parents emphasize children-centred values and staffs loving care, which can be related to an invisible pedagogic founded on play. Staffs loving care is understood as a condition for establishing relations with children in loco parentis – in parents place (van Manen, 1993).
Without knowledge about the Nordic kindergarten pedagogic and underlying play- and learning-theories, the invisible pedagogic and children’s holistic learning may be difficult to catch sight of (Bernstein, 1973). Different perceptions of learning and pedagogic may influence the collaboration between parents and staff about what is the “best interest of the child”. Parents’ different habitus, and social and cultural capital may contribute to unequal conditions in social meetings and collaboration with the staff.
All parents emphasize staffs loving caring attitude. Yet, parents experience the daily meetings with the staff differently. Parents with similar social and cultural capital to the staff, experience to be seen and recognized (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). Parents with social and cultural capital different from the staff, experience sometimes not to be seen and recognized, and may have limited possibilities to participate and collaborate in kindergarten.
