Stage One: Formulating my research question

Lydia joined the RESPECT project because she believed that parent involvement helps early childhood services to meet the needs and expectations of all its stakeholders and because she wanted to change her practices in order to involve all stakeholders in the early childhood curriculum. Lydia wanted children, families, teachers and the wider community to have a real voice within the service:

I am more comfortable with using the term families rather that parents when talking/writing about this group of people as I think by limiting it to parents may exclude other members of the child’s family that also play an integral role in the child’s life at home and at the centre. Therefore from now I will refer to parents as families.

Lydia suspected that while early childhood staff say that they include children’s and parents’ voices in their program, in practice they include only the voices that agree with them; and she recognised that she certainly spent more time with some parents than with others:

I struggle with much of early childhood theory and practices that say it (early childhood education) is child-centred and that children have a true voice in an early childhood curriculum … (because) … for the most part, adults still play a major role in decision making on behalf of the child on a daily basis.

Lydia had tried various ways to include parents’ ideas and wishes in her program, but was dissatisfied with them. She had found that families rarely wrote anything in the ‘room journals’ - although they talked more about them with staff when the books included photos of the children. She had found that rather than tell the relevant staff member about any problems with their children, families used the Communication Books to notify the Centre as a whole. Also many parents used Communication Books to specify how their child should spend her/his time each day, making teachers feel that they should keep to that timetable, thus limiting the child’s ability to have a say in how their day looks.

These concerns led Lydia to formulate this research question:

• How can we create genuine space for the voices of children, parents, teachers and the wider community to be incorporated and woven into the early childhood curriculum in meaningful and respectful ways?

Stage Two: Answering my Research Question

Lydia decided to distribute a brief questionnaire to staff and to parents, with a covering letter explaining its origins in the RESPECT project. (She noted later - and regretfully - that the questionnaire didn’t include the children.) She reflected at length on the questionnaire’s design, asking herself such questions as:

• Will all parents feel equally comfortable voicing their thoughts? In particular, will they feel they have to write only positive comments and/or what they think we want to hear?
• How else might I learn parents’ views?
• How can I accommodate parents/families for which English is their second language, or who have difficulties with writing or who have no time or desire to be involved in the research?
• How will the results affect my image of myself as a teacher?
• How do I share the results with others in constructive ways that support staff-parent relationships?

The first question on the questionnaire was, ‘How do you see parent involvement at the centre?’. All respondents felt that, overall, parent-teacher relationships were generally positive and that they could state their ideas about their child. They said that they valued incidental daily communication with teachers as well as their more in-depth conversations at social events and parent/teacher nights; and they said that open communication between teachers and parents can create better/shared understandings of how to care for children. Many parents said that the children’s individual books were a good way to learn about their child’s day, development, interest etc.; and that this was complemented by the room’s journals and by the displays of children’s pictures and work.

Responding to the question, ‘How can staff create genuine space for children, parents and teachers voices to be incorporated and woven into the early childhood curriculum in meaningful and respectful ways?’, parents said that the journals and children’s art work enabled people’s voices to be heard and that social events give parents and teachers time to work together to create a curriculum that includes all stakeholders’ voices. They also said that teachers can learn about children’s time at home and their daily interests, etc. through discussions with parents and through the children’s individual journals. Finally, parents suggested that staff e-mail draft curriculum changes for parents to comment on.

Stage Three: How have I changed?

Lydia’s participation in the RESPECT project convinced her of the value of using critical reflection to consider the complex and shifting nature of relationships with parents. She recognised that her relationships with children and parents often reflected institutional demands; and that her relationships with children often reflected and influenced her relationships with their parents:

Many of the restrictions placed on early childhood through organisations such as DHS, Accreditation, etc. influence how we see our role in relation to children and families. … I am aware I have uneven relationships with families as I do with children, teachers and other people within the … community. For example there are some children and adults that I naturally gravitate towards and others that I have difficulty connecting with.

Lydia also recognised many parents’ daily stresses and struggles, enabling her to step back from her problematic engagements with parents and to be less judgemental about how parents speak and act:

Stage Four: Where next?

Lydia developed short-term and long-term goals to guide her continuing journey for change:

Short-term (this year)

Ensure that the children’s journals are updated throughout the year and that all families know where to find them. Provide a brief summary of the questionnaires for families in the room and for other staff at the Centre.

Long-term (next year)

Weave the voices of children, parents/families, teachers and the wider community into the curriculum. Explore new ways to document and explain the room’s curriculum to families and to include them and their children in meaningful ways that respect each person’s values, needs and desires. E.g. provide e-mails of programs, snap shots of the day; ask parents what sort of information about their child they would like us to provide, rather than everybody receiving the same information. Avoid being tokenistic or making children and families the teacher’s apprentices - bring everybody together to converse with each other about the possibilities. How can I genuinely include the voices of children under 3 into the documentation/communication process?