Positive Relationships: PEAL - Parents as partners

Avoiding stereotypes and valuing difference

Knowing families well reduces the temptation to stereotype and make negative assumptions about parents' abilities, attitudes, lifestyles and interest in education. Siraj-Blatchford (2004) reminds us how crucial it is, when working with children, not to have low expectations because of stereotypes based on gender, class or ethnicity. In the same way, we need to view parents as individuals and not assume that they share exact experiences, characteristics and views with others of their 'type' - whether this is based on gender, ethnicity, faith group, class, sexual orientation, age or disability. There is as much diversity within perceived 'groups' as between them. Likewise, there are many different models of a family; for example, children may be cared for by one or two parents, members of the extended family, same-sex parents or foster families.

The more experience we have of getting to know individual people who make up families, talking to, home-visiting and working with parents who have a different life experience to our own, the more we recognise and learn to value the differences.

Understanding and matching services to need

Families living in any one area are all very different from each other. They do not respond in the same way to a setting's efforts to engage. Therefore, the more services and settings get to know individual families, the more successful they are likely to be in engaging them; they can adapt approaches and strategies to meet the needs of families and offer a range of possible options for involvement (Whalley and the Pen Green Team, 2001).

Knowing more about a family provides a greater understanding of the challenges it is facing. Being aware, for instance, that a family has an older disabled child or that a mother is working night shifts, may mean there is less tendency to make judgements about non-attendance at events, late arrival or apparent lack of participation in the setting generally. It may be possible to discuss other options for involvement, to offer some flexibility or make effective links with additional local support services as appropriate, based on individual family needs.

If family work and study patterns are known, as well as childcare needs and other commitments, the timing of any workshops, events, meetings and creche facilities can be adjusted to maximise attendance. Knowledge about who lives in the family home and who else has regular care of a child means an approach to other regular carers and older siblings may be possible - and they may be able to engage in regular dialogue about a child's learning. They may also be encouraged to borrow and use equipment, read with children and attend events if parents are unavailable.

Improving communication

A better knowledge and awareness of home languages spoken, translation and interpretation needs, and family literacy levels will help settings establish more effective dialogue with families, and will elicit more response to requests to share information and observations on children. Some families may be happy to write, while others may prefer verbal feedback or the use of photographs.

Developing shared understandings about learning

Talking with parents, listening to their ideas and finding out more about their own backgrounds and attitudes towards education, and their experiences of education, will all help in the process of trying to establish greater shared understandings about how children learn. This is important if the aim is to encourage parents to engage in more play and learning activities at home, complementing what happens in settings. Parents may not, for example, share a belief and understanding of how children learn through play, and choose not to follow advice in the way they help their children learn at home. This is very common. Brooker (2002) studied children in a reception class and found some Bangladeshi parents were particularly confused about school practice. They viewed play as something to be indulged, with no connection to learning. Children at home spent time joining in adult activities rather than playing. School was perceived as a place to work hard, not play. Other parents of children in the same class were also supplementing school with more formal learning at home.

Knowing what parents think about learning is important. If practitioners listen and positively acknowledge what parents are already doing at home to help their child learn, it opens up dialogue and makes offering other, additional or alternative options that much easier.

In this example, the practitioners might affirm and reinforce how much children do learn as they work alongside parents at home. They might express their reservations about more formal workbook approaches while also accepting the parent's view that their child does enjoy and respond to this type of activity at home. They could also explain their own practice more fully, demonstrating how children learn through play and how adults can enable and engage in that play. Ideas for play at home could be offered and modelled for parents, and loans of equipment made. This acknowledges parents' own views, broadens parents' experience and offers them other options.

Extending learning already happening at home

Establishing some idea of the type of learning activities, both formal and informal, that are already taking place in a child's home also helps to make more effective connections between home and setting, because practitioners can pick up on children's interests and experience to extend learning. It may be that children cook regularly at home, help with gardening or cleaning, or have grandparents who take them out to local markets or places of worship. It would be possible, for instance, to invite grandparents to work in the nursery garden with the children or set up a market stall for role-play. This connects learning between the home and setting, providing continuity and helping a child make sense of their experience. It also supports parents in understanding that what they do at home on an everyday basis helps their child to learn.

Understanding conversation and behaviour

Knowing a little more about what happens at home also helps in the understanding and management of certain forms of child behaviour and response. Brooker (2002) found some Bangladeshi children to be disadvantaged because teachers were unaware of the differing expectations between home and school. Teachers valued active talking, participation and independence, whereas many of the Bangladeshi families encouraged passive listening when learning, and had not particularly developed or valued independence in their young children.

Some children may be very quiet at story, circle or discussion times, or prefer working with close adult guidance, because they have learned this behaviour at home. Awareness of home practices like these might enable practitioners to think through strategies to enable such children to talk more at school. Teachers could also try to share their knowledge and work with parents, supporting them to see that encouraging greater independence might benefit their children at school.

Having a more complete picture of a child's life - perhaps recognising family names or knowing a little about a regular journey a child undertakes - also enables a practitioner to 'tune in' to a child's thoughts and talk about immediate events in a more meaningful way. This creates more informed, sustained conversation at higher levels to develop thinking, encouraging children to recall, make connections, speculate and reason. This is particularly useful for children who have speech and language needs or who are in the early stages of learning English as an additional language. Visiting children at home is an effective way to gain this level of familiarity (see case study).

REFERENCES

- Siraj-Blatchford, I (2004) 'Educational disadvantage in the early years: How do we overcome it? Some lessons from research.' European Early Childhood Education research journal, 12, 2, pp5-20.

- Whalley, M and the Pen Green team (2001) Involving Parents in the Children's Learning. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

- Brooker, L (2002) Starting School: Young Children's Learning Cultures. Buckingham: Open University Press.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Parents, Early Years and Learning: Parents as Partners in the Early Years Foundation Stage - Principles into Practice by Helen Wheeler and Joyce Connor, with additional material by Heather Goodwin is published by the National Children's Bureau (ISBN: 9781905818433, £13,80 NCB members/£16 non-members). To order a copy call 0845 458 9910, e-mail ncb@centralbooks.com or go to www.ncb.org.uk/books

CASE STUDY

At nursery Pali, who is acquiring English as a second language, often speaks about members of his family, but staff find it hard to understand what he is saying. He also talks a lot about the number 8 and clearly recognises the numeral. By walking with him to his house, taking photographs and talking to his mother, his key person was able to find out the names of the people who live in his flat and understand their relationship to him. She also discovered that he lives on the 8th floor and likes to press the button himself for the lift. 'This my house (8), this my car (G - ground floor).'

Source: PEAL practice example: Home visits