Parent-practitioner partnerships in early childhood provision in England, Hungary and Kazakhstan: similarities and differences in discourses

ABSTRACT

Whilst international policymakers have reached consensus on the importance of investing in early childhood development and increasingly monitor that investment using standardized measurement, the nature and rationale of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision remain diverse. In the context of that disparity, this article explores an aspect of ECEC provision that is commonly recognized for its potential to enhance young children’s development and learning, yet for which characteristics remain variable: partnerships between ECEC practitioners and parents. The article reports and discusses results from a cross-cultural narrative study that investigated the nature of such partnerships in three different countries: England, Hungary and Kazakhstan. During focus group interviews, ECEC academics (n = 16) discussed five themes that emerged from literature reviews. Findings indicate more differences than similarities between the countries’ narratives concerning ECEC parent-practitioner partnerships, suggesting such partnerships may be an aspect of ECEC provision for which a homogeneous approach and quality measure across countries are not feasible.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent-practitioner partnerships
• home-school links
• global monitoring
• international early childhood
• early childhood education and care
• early childhood development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Jane Murray is an Associate Professor at the Centre of Education and Research, University of Northampton, UK where she leads the MA in Early Years Education and supervises Master’s and Ph.D. students studying in the fields of education and early childhood education. Jane specializes in research concerning issues of social justice in education and early childhood education and has published extensively in these areas. Prior to working in higher education, Jane was an early years and primary teacher for two decades.

Eleonora Teszenyi is a Senior Lecturer in Education and specialist in Early Years Education at the University of Northampton where she teaches on postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in early years. Before entering Higher Education in 2010, Eleonora worked in the early years sector in England for 19 years as an Early Years Teacher and Local Authority Advisory Teacher and she led practice in a Children’s Centre. Eleonora’s research interests focus on parental choice of childcare provision and mixed age kindergartens in Hungary. She has several publications in the field of early childhood.

Dr. Anikó Nagy Varga is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Child Education at the Faculty of Child and Adult Education, University of Debrecen, Hungary where she teaches basic principles of pedagogy, family pedagogy, active exploration of the outside environment and associated methods. She is a mentor pedagogue of students’ practical training in kindergartens. Her research interests are in history of pedagogy, education for early childhood and kindergarten pedagogues’ professionalism.

ProfessorSándor Pálfi is Vice-Dean and Head of the Department of Child Education and holds a chair in Early Childhood Education within early childhood teacher education at the Faculty of Child and Adult Education, University of Debrecen. He has a background as a kindergarten pedagogue. His research focus is on Early Childhood Education, Principles of Project Pedagogy in Hungary, and the Interpretation of Child-based Education Approach in kindergarten and children’s free play.

Marzhan Tajiyeva is a part-time lecturer in Early Years Studies, Head of International Programmes Office at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Kazakhstan. She was a research assistant for government-funded education projects on Teacher Education Programmes at Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD levels (2013), and has worked on Project ‘Art Education’. Marzhan currently coordinates the AbaiKazNPU subject-curriculum project with two UK universities. Her research interests focus on innovative approaches to early child development and education and parent-practitioner partnership and he has several publications on early childhood education in Kazakh research journals. Marzhan was a scholar of The Presidential International programmes Bolashak.

Aigul Iskakova is a Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor and Director for the International Office at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Kazakhstan. She has 20 years of early childhood education experience at pedagogical universities of Kazakhstan and researches in the field of early childhood education. Aigul has led many funded EY research projects for the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan. She supervises Master’s students and she has over seventy publications in the field of early years. She was a Step-by-Step Programme coach and is currently leading an Inclusive Education project for the Soros Foundation. Aigul was a scholar of The Presidential International programmes Bolashak.

ORCID

Jane Murray http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7000-0901