Summary: | The purpose of the study is to analyze what characterizes the interaction between preschool teachers and parents born abroad, furthermore what promotes and impedes the intercommunication between them. There is a lack of studies about the parental involvement in preschools whilst numerous studies can be found concerning the parental involvement within educational establishment subsequent to preschools. The completed study is qualitative, and based on interviews with five teachers in three different Reggio Emilia inspired preschools. The results of this study show that preschool teachers often face various challenges in their daily work. These challenges often originate in different pre- understandings about the societal norms, values and behavioral rules. The results also show that conflicts may arise between preschool teachers and the foreign-born parents because of distinct sentiments regarding previously mentioned values. Subsequently this causes the preschool teachers to obtain the role of the educator in relation to the parents. This positioning may complicate parental collaboration because it often contributes to an unequal power relationship being created. What promotes the cooperation with parents is to increase the visibility and awareness of societal structures, in order to attempt to change the communication and interaction patterns that are generally accepted in preschools and used extensively in this context.
|