EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Introduction

The participation of parents is more desirable than its disengagement from school, but also more complicated. Involve parents involves not only an act of will, but also the implementation of a series of actions often laborious and not always return immediately. In a sense, parents and educators and teachers (but not the child) benefit from the existence of two separate worlds: some because they work without the "interference" of parents, secure in their space and their functions, and other can perform their tasks without feeling that someone is interfering in his affairs, or monitor, etc. What for some and others may be comfort to children becomes discontinuity, lack of convergence and consistency, coordination. The fact that teachers and teachers have not been socialized in a professional culture that gives real importance to the participation of parents (and not just rhetorical importance), have received their training tools and strategies to carry out mutual cooperation , certainly contributes to maintain the normal state of affairs, which is the lack of joint action.

Discussion & Analyses

It is certainly much to expect the participation of parents, although it is important to stress that it is unwise to hope that everything that it can be expected is evident from the start. In a context where there is little tradition of parental involvement is reasonable to consider a strategy of progressive partnership, in which parents are involved in what at first may find it easier and go slowly finding ways to deepen in this collaboration (Fantuzzo & McWayne, 2002). To the extent that they are comfortable, respected, encouraged to participate and convinced that such participation is in the interests of the child or the child that progress will be given and parents will respond to the initiatives of the teacher or group of teachers.

The collaboration of the parents must therefore be envisaged as a gradual process in which each advance should be consolidated and evaluated before proceeding to the next. What to expect from the parents' participation varies, thus greatly depending on when that is the collaborative process. The child receives stimuli both in the nursery or school, at home, and both areas must be connected (Nord, Lennon, Liu & Chandler, 2000). At home it is recommended (if not necessary) that parents take control of the duties and skills that children are in class trying to help solve your questions and be aware of school developments. Help the child in school and further strengthen the bonds between parent and child, creating a bond of support and understanding.

In addition to these measures that can be done at home, there are also joint measures together parents, children and teachers and are very useful in determining the child's deficiencies and propose work to improve. These can be, for example, tutorials, interviews, both individually (teacher-parent) and school boards or associations of parents of students, collectively (Nord, Lennon, Liu & Chandler, 2000). Other forms of participation are the parents' meetings, lectures, ...