Developing a model of parent participation in an early childhood care and education centre in Lavender Hill, Western Cape

Abstract

Parental involvement in children's educational journeys has been established by global research. Despite this rhetoric, there is limited research in South African Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) centres that explores how parents should participate democratically in early education, especially in areas of low-socio-economic standing. This interpretive, qualitative research was conducted in one ECCE centre, with parents and teachers, in Lavender Hill, Cape Town, South Africa, and endeavoured to understand how agency can be shifted for parents and teachers from involvement to active participation. The prospect of collaborating provides possibilities for meaningful participation. Opportunities were provided to give voice to all the participants in the setting. The ECCE centre staff (4) and 7 parents participated in the initial semi-structured interviews. A one-day Appreciative Inquiry (AI) included all the staff (4) and the whole parent body (27) providing the opportunity for democratic collaboration. Analysis of school documents and parent journaling, by 7 parents, added to the richness of the data collection. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed in the interpretation of the data. The rich data collected considers how an ECCE centre can co-construct parent participation through collaboration. The opportunity for open dialogue provided the stakeholders in the setting the opportunity to listen to each other, supporting meaningful connection(s) and empowerment for parent participation within the community. The findings revealed the value of promoting parent agency through participation as it also supports the strengthening of community ties and social cohesion. Creating opportunities for dialogue and participation helps develop a socially cohesive and transformative environment. Parents want to have an impact on the ECCE centre and are interested in the life of their children in the setting. Supporting meaningful participation and working together supports individuals and the community of the ECCE centre to become a community of practice that has the potential to impact the community around the setting. The findings provided insight into what would be valuable to consider when co-constructing parent participation models that are unique to ECCE centres. Democratically including parents voice, contributes to the ongoing, iterative, unfolding of a parent participation model in the ECCE centre. The co-construction of a bespoke parent participation model within the research setting informed the creation of a generic approach to parent participation that other educational settings can employ in the co-construction of their own approach to parent participation. The generic model is based on the outcome of the findings with agentic and democratic practice as the foundation. This approach avoids an autocratic approach with the intention of empowering educational settings to co-construct their preferred way of collaborating to create social cohesion within their environment.