Partnerships between parents and professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are widely acknowledged as important for children’s well-being, learning, and development. As children with immigrant backgrounds often experience cultural and linguistic differences between their home and ECEC-environments, bridges between these two contexts might be especially significant for these children. Although European ECEC-classrooms are becoming increasingly multicultural, little is known about how professionals view their partnerships with parents in multicultural classrooms in Europe. The current paper investigates the partnerships views of professionals working in multicultural classrooms and how these are related to the professionals’ practices and characteristics. Findings suggest that professionals have rather positive partnership views, although they reveal a potential for higher levels of shared beliefs with parents about the child. Furthermore, the findings indicate that several partnership aspects are predicted by professionals’ multicultural practices, their diversity related self-efficacy and their own cultural background.
Norheim, Helga; Moser, Thomas & Broekhuizen, Martine Louise (2022)
Partnerships in multicultural ECEC settings in Norway: Perspectives from parents and professionals
Partnerships between parents and professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are well established as being important for children’s well-being and learning, and may be especially significant for children with immigrant backgrounds. The present study uses data from the Inclusive Education and Social Support to Tackle Inequalities in Society (ISOTIS) project to investigate perspectives from parents and professionals regarding their mutual partnership as well as their views on multicultural and multilingual education in culturally and linguistically diverse ECEC settings in Norway. The findings indicate positive partnership views among the parents and professionals, but also suggest the opportunity to create a more shared understanding of the child’s behaviour and potential. The findings further suggest that both parents and professionals value educational practices that promote cultural diversity. However, beliefs regarding multilingual education diverge, indicating that although ECEC may play an important role in children’s multilingual education, there is little agreement on how this role should best be played.
Mahan, Karina Rose & Norheim, Helga (2021)
Something new and different: student perceptions of content and language integrated learning
Partnerships between parents and professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are widely acknowledged as important for children’s well-being and learning. For children with immigrant backgrounds, bridges between the different social contexts that surround them are especially significant. The current paper synthesizes research-based knowledge on the barriers to and facilitators of partnerships between parents with immigrant backgrounds and professionals in ECEC. This overview review includes 25 articles that comprise qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies. The most frequently identified barriers include language, asymmetrical power relations and cultural differences and disagreements. This research suggests approaches to facilitate partnerships, such as employing bilingual staff, using translators for parent-teacher conferences when needed, translating materials into different family languages, translanguaging, taking time and showing patience and respect. Finally, to ensure that all parents feel comfortable to express their views, more creative strategies from the professionals might be needed.
Slot, Pauline; Penderi, Efthymia, Norheim, Helga, Pagani, Valentina, Wyslowska, Olga & Bulkowski, Krzysztof (2023)
What aspects contribute to parent-professional relationships in a diverse (pre)school context?
[Academic lecture]. EARLI Conference.
Pagani, Valentina; Slot, Pauline, Penderi, Efthymia, Norheim, Helga, Wyslowska, Olga & Bulkowski, Krzysztof (2023)
Teacher-parent relationship in ECE and primary education. A Cross-National Study in Six Countries
[Academic lecture]. EARLI Conference.
Norheim, Helga (2019)
Foreldresamarbeid i barnehagen - one size does not fit all
The use and evaluation of family support services in disadvantaged groups across Europe
[Academic lecture]. Konferanse.
The early years are formative for children’s cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and poverty and social exclusion during these years can have substantial negative effects on children’s development (Shonkoff et al., 2010). Research shows that family support services can partially compensate for these negative effects (e.g., Engle et al., 2011), however, the availability and thus use of these services differs between countries, and little is known about parent’s evaluation of these services. The current study reports on both the use and evaluation of home-based and center-based family support services in different disadvantaged groups (parents with a Maghrebian, Turkish, Roma and low-income native background) across Europe. Data comes from a large-scale quantitative survey in ten European countries (Czech Republic, England, Ger-many, Greece, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Portugal; N = 250–300 per group per country). Preliminary analyses show that there is considerable variation in both the use and evaluation of home-based and center-based family support services within disadvantaged groups across different coun-tries (e.g., between Turkish families in the Netherlands, Germany, and England), and between disadvan-taged groups in the same country. These differences will be interpreted in relation to context characteris-tics (e.g., accessibility of services) and known differences between groups (e.g., cultural differences). Fi-nally, analyses show that measured family-factors (parent’s educational level and perceived own cultural identity) also relate to the use and evaluation of services. Results from this study can inform interventions to improve the accessibility and quality of family support services.
