Parental agency and related emotions in the educational partnership

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the understudied issue of parental agency and related emotions in the educational partnership in the context of Finnish early childhood education and care. We asked (i) what types of parental agency can be identified in the educational partnership and (ii) in what ways emotions are related to these types of agency. The narrative method was used to analyse the interview data of parents of children with difficulties in self-regulation. The findings indicate that parental agency in the educational partnership varied from proactive and confrontational to hindered. Typically, pleasant emotions were related to proactive and unpleasant emotions to confrontational parental agency. Ambivalent and neutral emotions, in turn, were related to hindered parental agency. This study enhances understanding of the educational partnership from the viewpoint of parents of a child with difficulties in self-regulation. The study also contributes to the theoretical debate on the emotions related to agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• educational partnership
• emotions
• narrative research
• parental agency
• self-regulation

Notes on contributors

Erja Rautamies, M.A. (Psych.), is a Ph.D. Candidate, in early childhood education. Rautamies works as a University Teacher in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. Her teaching responsibilities are focused on development and well-being of children. Her research interests include educational partnership and children with difficulties in self-regulation. This article is a part of her doctoral thesis.

Katja Vähäsantanen, Ph.D., is a University Researcher in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. Her current research interests include professional identity, agency, leadership, learning and emotions in work organizations. She is currently working on the REAL research project, which investigates emotions in agentic learning at work.

Pirjo-Liisa Poikonen, Ph.D., is a University Researcher (emerita) in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research interests include curriculum development. In addition, her current studies focus on issues of parents’ and teachers’ collaboration, social interaction and partnership in pre-primary and school contexts and factors contributing to children’s transition from pre-primary context to school context. She has been researcher in the First Steps study and Children’s socio-emotional well-being and daily family life in a 24-h economy; both of the studies include cultural comparison.

Marja-Leena Laakso, Ph.D., is a Professor of Early Childhood Education, and a Dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research interests concentrate on young children’s social-emotional development, children’s and families’ well-being in a 24-h economy, children’s overactivity and challenging behaviour and children’s pre-linguistic and early language development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.