Parents and Professionals in Early Childhood Settings

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-335-24374-7
Verlag: Open University Press

Buch, Englisch

Parents and Professionals in Early Childhood Settings addresses the complex and sometimes controversial issues that emerge from the care and education of young children. Staff and parents in early childhood settings can find ample advice about how to promote good communication, but much of that advice has no grounding in their daily lives. Instead, it prescribes an established set menu of communication tools, such as newsletters, notebooks and message boards that rarely respond to what staff and families say about relationships between them.

Drawing on the authors' research with hundreds of parents, staff and students, the book explores relationships between staff and families through a series of 'issue stories'. Each story features the voices and perspectives of 'real' staff and families and captures their various understandings, desires and feelings about a complex, difficult and/or controversial issue.

The authors support each 'issue story' with snippets from relevant international research, 'Fairness Alerts' that highlight unfair thinking habits and show how to challenge them, and some 'points to ponder' and 'points to discuss' that encourage readers to extend their thinking about the issue/s in the story.

Parents and Professionals in Early Childhood Settings is written for the diverse people in the international field of early childhood education and care. They include staff, students, academics, trainers, curriculum advisors, policy officers and managers, together with the parents and other carers of young children.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mac Naughton, Glenda

Hughes, Patrick

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Kindergarten & Vorschule

Inhaltsverzeichnis

We/they are always available. but in snatches of time

Understanding the professional

Revealing ignorance

Joining in - the benefits and costs

We speak English here

We respect 'their' culture

Disclosing personal details - who needs to know?

Welcoming parents. but not really in this space

Ways to communicate. but don’t ruffle their feathers

I just want some feedback!

She'll love the sausage sizzle!

I'm learning how to teach my child to read

They're just not involved

Boys who like to be different

Lesbian mums - what's the fuss?

Are we genuine partners and how do we know?

That's jargon to me!

Über Autor(innen)

Glenda Mac Naughton is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood (CEIEC) in the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education, Australia. She was founding Director of the CEIEC (2001 - 2010). Previously, she was an early childhood practitioner, manager and government policy advisor in the UK and Australia.

Patrick Hughes is a Research Fellow at the CEIEC. He has taught at London University, the Open University in the UK and at Deakin University in Australia, and has been an independent communications consultant. Mac Naughton and Hughes are a well-established writing team whose work includes books, book chapters and articles.