Browsing by Subject "päivittäiset kohtaamiset"

The purpose of my thesis is to examine parents’ views on what information is being exchanged in daily conversations between parents and early childhood education personnel, what factors can make exchanging information more difficult and what function does it have. I approach the topic from the viewpoint of parental involvement. Previous research findings have shown that parents value conversation most of all the forms of cooperation between parents and early childhood education personnel. Parental involvement is also most apparent in the questions parents pose and initiatives they take regarding their own children at daily drop-offs and pick-ups. Yet daily conversations have not been studied much compared to the formal conversations that focus on children's early childhood education plans. To make the exchange of information function well in daily conversations it is important to know more about parents’ views on them. This thesis is qualitative. The material was collected in October 2016 via an Internet-based questionnaire that consisted of open questions and one structured question. The respondents were selected by using snowball sampling. The questionnaire was answered by 34 parents of whom 31 were mothers and 3 were fathers. 28 parents had their children in day care centers and 6 parents had their children in family day care. The children were from one to seven years old. The material was analyzed by using inductive content analysis. Parents and early childhood education personnel exchanged information about the children as members of their own families, information about the children as members of their early childhood education communities and wishes that parents and personnel had for each other. Parents thought that the exchange of information can be more difficult if there are problems in the interactional abilities of the participants of the conversation, in the circumstances of the interaction and in the amount and content of information. The exchange of information was seen to be supporting parenthood, supporting personnel in their work and strengthening the cooperation between parents and personnel. According to the results, parents and personnel seem to exchange diverse information in daily conversations but there are several factors that can make it difficult. It is important to take them into account and to prevent or eliminate them if possible. The results of this thesis indicate that parents view exchanging information as important and perceive it to benefit both the parents and the personnel and consequently also the children.