THIS PAPER PRESENTS A study on what it means to practise home–kindergarten partnership differently. Using Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory, this study draws on the narratives of six Chinese parents' successful involvement in home–kindergarten partnerships. Data was gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with parents whose children attend three different kindergartens in Zhejiang, China. Narrative analysis was employed to analyse the data. Critical to the findings is the parents' willingness to grapple with initial complexities and educationally constructed borders and boundaries and to move beyond simplistic partnership with the kindergartens.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbellP. (2004). Narrative explanation: An alternative to variable-centered explanation?Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 287–310.
2.
Arthurl., BeecherB., DeathE., DockettS., & FarmerS. (2008). Programming & planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.). Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.
BergerE.H. (2000). Parents as partners in education: Families and schools working together (5th edn). Merrill: Upper Saddle River.
5.
BerkL.E. (2006). Child development (7th edn). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
6.
BillmanN., GeddesC., & HedgesH. (2005). Teacher-parent partnerships: Sharing understandings and making changes. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 30 (1), 44–48.
7.
BojuwoyeO. (2009). Home-school partnership—a study of opinions of selected parents and teachers in Kwazulu Natal Province, South Africa. Research Papers in Education, 24 (4), 461–475.
8.
BronfenbrennerU. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513–531.
9.
BronfenbrennerU. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design.Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: Harvard University Press.
10.
BronfenbrennerU. (1994). Ecological models of human development. In HusenT. & PostlethwaiteT. N. (Eds), The international encyclopedia of education (2nd edn, pp. 1643–1647). New York: Elsevier Science.
11.
BronfenbrennerU. (1995). Developmental ecology through space and time: A future perspective. In MoenP., ElderG. H.Jr., & LuscherK. (Eds), Examining lives in context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 619–647). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
12.
BronfenbrennerU., & CeciS.J. (1994). Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: A bioecological model. Psychological Review, 101, 568–586.
13.
BronfenbrennerU., & EvansG.W. (2000). Developmental science in the 21st century: Emerging questions, theoretical models, research designs and empirical findings. Social Development, 9 (1), 115–125.
14.
CarlisleE., StanleyL. & KempleK.M. (2005). Opening doors: Understanding school and family influences on family involvement. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33 (3), 155–162.
15.
ChambersC., & ChildreA. (2005). Fostering family-professional collaboration through person-centered IEP meetings: The ‘True Directions’ model. Young Exceptional Children, 8 (3), 20–28.
16.
ChenN. (2006). The team of assistant teaching for children's growth: A new model of home-kindergarten collaboration. Early Childhood Education, 2006 (4), 58–59.
17.
ChenY. (2001). Parent school: A bridge of home-kindergarten education. Early Childhood Education, 2001 (11), 42.
18.
ConnellyF.M., & ClandininD.J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Education Researcher, 19 (5), 2–14.
19.
CrumpS.J., & EltisK.J. (1996). Schools, parents and community: Teaching and learning together?International Journal of Educational Research, 25 (1), 45–52. Doi: 10.1016/0883-0355(96)82041-6
20.
DaleN. (1996). Working with families of children with special needs: Partnership and practiceLondon, New York: Routledge.
21.
DaviesD. (1997). Crossing boundaries: How to create successful partnership with families and communities. Early Childhood Education Journal, 25 (1), 73–77.
22.
DongX. (2003). Analysing problems in home-kindergarten partnerships. Studies in Preschool Education, 7–8, 97–98.
23.
DownerJ.T., & MendezJ.L. (2005). African American father involvement and preschool children's school readiness. Early Education and Development, 16 (3), 317–340.
24.
Education Department of Zhejiang (2009). The first rank kindergartens in Zhejiang. Retrieved 20 May, 2011 from http://dkey.51yey.com/81677.html.
25.
ElliottR. (2005). Engaging families: Building strong communication.Watson, A.C.T.: Early Childhood Australia.
26.
GeR. (2008). Investigating and analyzing the current state of home-kindergarten collaboration. Early Childhood Education 2008 (12).
HuH. (2009). The practice of home-kindergarten partnerships in Germany. Outlook, 2 (5), 33–34.
29.
HuberL.K. (2003). Knowing children and building relationships with families: A strategy for improving conferences. Early Childhood Education Journal, 31 (1), 75–77.
30.
HughesP., & MacNaughtonG. (2002). Preparing early childhood professionals to work with parents: The challenge of diversity and dissensus. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 28 (2), 14–21.
31.
JinH. (2003). Meet-the-parent day: A new approach of home-kindergarten cooperation. Early Childhood Education, 2003 (7), 71.
32.
KeenD. (2007). Parents, families, and partnerships: Issues and considerations. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 54 (3), 339–349.
33.
KeyserJ. (2006). From parents to partners: Building a family-centered early childhood program.St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
34.
Lamb-ParkerF., PiotrkowskiC.S., BakerA. J. L., Kessler-SklarS., ClarkB., & PeayL. (2001). Understanding barriers to parent involvement in Head Start: A research-community partnership. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 16 (1), 35–51.
35.
LeuJ. (2008). Early childhood music education in Taiwan: An ecological systems perspective. Arts Education Policy Review, 109 (3), 17.
36.
LiF., & ZhangG. (2005). The comparison into home-school cooperation between China and the US. Education Exploration, 177 (3), 49–50.
37.
LiS. (2006). Home-kindergarten cooperation can effectively promote the quality of early childhood education. Family Education, 5 (2), 12.
38.
LiaoJ. (2003). Analysis of home-kindergarten cooperative models. Early Education, 2003(12).
39.
LiuY. (2003). Increacing parent participation rate: Building new type of home-kindergarten relationships. Gansu Education, 7–8, 17–18.
40.
LvZ. (2005). Reinforcing home-kindergarten collaboration to promote the quality of mutual rearing. Education Modernization, 2005(7).
41.
McBrideB.A., DyerW.J., & RaneT.R. (2008). Family partnerships in early childhood programs: Don't forget fathers/men. In CornishM. M. (Ed), Promising practices for partnering with families in the early years (pp. 41–58). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, INC.
42.
McgrathW.H. (2007). Ambivalent partnerships: Power, trust, and partnership in relationships between mothers and teachers in a full-time child care center. Teachers College Record, 109 (6), 1401–1422.
43.
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (2001). The guideline framework of kindergarten education (Trial).Beijing: Beijing Normal University.
44.
MishlerE. (1986). The analysis of interview-narratives. In SarbinT. (Ed), Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct (pp. 233–255). New York, NY: Praeger. Educational Researcher, 19 (5), 2–14.
45.
MorrisonG.S. (2008). Fundermentals of early childhood education (5th edn). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
National Education Committee, & Ministry of Labour and Personnel (1987). Staffing standards in full-time and boarding kindergartens (Trial). Retrieved 16 June, 2011 from http://www.children61.com/html/2/2/72.shtml.
48.
New South Wales Department of Community Services (NSW DoCS) (2002). New South Wales curriculum framework for children's services: The practice of relationships, essential provisions for children's services.Sydney: New South Wales Department of Community Services.
49.
PaikS.J. (2004). Korean and US families, schools, and learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 41 (1), 71–90. doi: Doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2005.04.006
50.
PengQ., & GuoK. (2001). Barriers to family-school collaboration and their overcoming. Education Science, 17 (4), 28–30.
51.
PinkusS. (2003). All talk and no action: Transforming the rhetoric of parent–professional partnership into practice. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 3 (2), 128–141.
52.
PorterL. (2008). Teacher-parent collaboration: Early childhood to adolescence.Victoria: ACER Press.
53.
PotterC., & CarpenterJ. (2008). ‘Something in it for dads’: Getting fathers involved with Sure Start. Early Child Development and Care, 178(7 & 8), 761–772.
54.
RoddJ. (2006). Leadership in early childhood (3rd edn). Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin.
55.
RyburnM. (1997). Dilemmas in working in partnership with the parents and relatives of children involved in child protection planning. Early Child Development and Care, 129 (1), 79–93.
56.
ShanA., & YangX. (2008). A new form of home-kindergarten collaboration: Kindergarten BBS. Journal of Educational Development, 2008 (7), 59–60.
57.
SunT., & LiuH. (2006). The strategy of strengthening home—kindergarten cooperation. Journal of Sichuan College of Education, 22 (6).
58.
SwickK.J. (2003). Communication concepts for strengthening family–school–community partnerships. Early Childhood Education Journal, 30 (4), 275–280.
59.
SwickK.J. (2006). Families and educators together: Raising caring and peaceable children. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(4), 279–287.
60.
SwickK.J., GrafwallnerR., CockeyM., RoachJ., DavidsonS., MayorM., (1997). On Board Early: Building strong family-school relations. Early Childhood Education Journal, 24 (4), 269–273.
61.
SwickK.J., & WilliamsR.D. (2006). An analysis of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological perspective for early childhood educators: Implications for working with families experiencing stress. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33 (5), 371–377.
62.
WangX. (2003). Building life-long education for children: Exploring family-kindergarten collaboration in the living curriculum.Hangzhou: Zhejiang University.
63.
WhiteF., HayesB., & LiveseyD. (2005). Developmental psychology from infancy to adulthood.NSW: Pearson Prentice Hall.
64.
WintonP.J., BrothersonM.J., & SummersJ.A. (2008). Learning from the field of early intervention about partnering with families. In CornishM. M. (Ed), Promising practices for partnering with families in the early years (pp. 21–40). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, INC.
65.
XuF. (2008). Home visit: A good way of home-kindergarten collaboration. China Education Innovationi Herald, 2008 (15), 224.
66.
YangY. (2006). Problems and strategies of home-school collaboration. Fujian Education(5), 7–8.
67.
YueY. (2002). The current state of Chinese home-school cooperation and influencing factors. Journal of Tianjin Academy of Educational Science, 3, 50–53.
68.
ZhangR. (2004). Features of foreign home-kindergarten partnerships and the enlightment. Early Childhood Education, 7 (8), 20–21.
69.
ZhengS. (2002). German Kita kindergarten's work with parents. Early Education, 12, 13.
70.
ZhouR. (2005). How kindergartens should cooperate with families in children's education. Early Childhood Education, (10)60–62.
