TY - JOUR
T1 - Parental experiences of belonging within the preschool community
AU - Egilsson, Björn Rúnar
AU - Einarsdóttir, Jóhanna
AU - Dockett, Sue
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Doctoral Grants of the?University of Iceland Research Fund. It was also supported?through a research project Politics of belonging: Promoting children?s inclusion in educational settings across borders funded by NordForsk (project number 85644). We would?also like to thank Prof. Michel Vandenbroeck from Ghent?University and Dr. Jaana Juutinen from the University of?Oulu for their expert advice and constructive criticism.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Little is known about how supportive relationships and parent communities materialize, or fail to materialize, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings characterized by family diversity. This paper explores parents’ lived experiences of belonging and non-belonging through semi-structured interviews with 12 parents of children from diverse backgrounds in two preschools in Reykjavík, Iceland. The children of these parents were 5–6 years old and would make the transition to primary school in the next school year. Interviews focused on parents’ experiences of their child’s time at the preschool, relationships with peers, educators and other families and the forthcoming transition to primary school. Findings suggested varied parental attitudes. While some reported benefits from belonging to a preschool community, others preferred to keep their distance or actively retained boundaries between home and school spheres. For these latter parents, belonging was framed as a matter of choice, influenced by factors such as time and language. A nuanced understanding of time as both facilitating belonging and a limited resource to be managed emerged from the study. These perspectives have implications for how policymakers and educators might facilitate belonging but also the importance of respecting those parents who choose to remain ‘outside’ the preschool community.
AB - Little is known about how supportive relationships and parent communities materialize, or fail to materialize, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings characterized by family diversity. This paper explores parents’ lived experiences of belonging and non-belonging through semi-structured interviews with 12 parents of children from diverse backgrounds in two preschools in Reykjavík, Iceland. The children of these parents were 5–6 years old and would make the transition to primary school in the next school year. Interviews focused on parents’ experiences of their child’s time at the preschool, relationships with peers, educators and other families and the forthcoming transition to primary school. Findings suggested varied parental attitudes. While some reported benefits from belonging to a preschool community, others preferred to keep their distance or actively retained boundaries between home and school spheres. For these latter parents, belonging was framed as a matter of choice, influenced by factors such as time and language. A nuanced understanding of time as both facilitating belonging and a limited resource to be managed emerged from the study. These perspectives have implications for how policymakers and educators might facilitate belonging but also the importance of respecting those parents who choose to remain ‘outside’ the preschool community.
KW - Belonging
KW - Bridging and Bonding
KW - Diversity
KW - Nordic
KW - Parents
KW - Preschool
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U2 - 10.1007/s13158-021-00281-z
DO - 10.1007/s13158-021-00281-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102617853
VL - 53
SP - 31
EP - 47
JO - International Journal of Early Childhood
JF - International Journal of Early Childhood
SN - 0020-7187
IS - 1
ER -