Inclusion in kindergartens

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Work with diversity in sustainable education

Proposal

The mission statement for Norwegian kindergartens highlights the parental mandate, expressing that the kindergarten shall ensure the parents' right to participate, and work in close cooperation and understanding with the parents. In addition to the Framework plan for kindergartens (2017), theory and research on parental cooperation express that educators should engage parents as active partners and contributors in the kindergarten. They should spend time on the daily interactions with parents and focus on establishing a relation based on trust and mutual dialogue. When focusing on parents with a minority background this becomes even more important. The kindergarten should “ensure that everyone feel that they are seen, included and appreciated” (Ministry of Children, Equality and Inclusion, 2012-2013, p.48).

By studying two Norwegian kindergartens involved in the national initiative “Competence for Diversity”, I have explored their formal and informal parental cooperation, focusing on how they ensure that families with a refugee background are seen, included and appreciated. Based on critical theory I have used a multitude of research methods. The staff filled out diaries and I conducted participating observations, focusing on informal interactions between staff members and parents. I have also observed formal cooperation by attending parent meetings and parent conferences. Finally, I have interviewed staff members and parents with a refugee background.

Some of the initial findings shows that most of the time the informal cooperation was short, focusing on greetings and occasionally exchange of short information. There were also several occasions with no communication at all. The way in which the staff interacted with parents, regardless of background, depended on the parent. The staff expressed that they wanted longer time in these meetings, whereas most of the parents said they had little time, especially in the mornings. Some of the parents said that they would like to receive more information about their child’s daily life in kindergarten, and if they did not ask, they did not get this information. In the formal cooperation, the tendencies were that the educator decided the focus, opening for the parent’s point of view or questions. The terms integration and inclusion were discussed with the staff members, and based on a model explaining this, they more or less unanimously placed their kindergarten within inclusion regarding their work with children, and within integration regarding their work with parents. The staff members and parents expressed that they did not talk much about the parents’ background, besides religious concerns regarding food, neither in formal or informal cooperation.

The findings show overall that there is a discrepancy between theory and practice concerning parental cooperation with minority parents. One may question how the kindergartens secure the parental mandate and ensure that all parents feel seen, included and appreciated, when the informal cooperation is so short, and the formal cooperation focuses on the educators’ point-of-view.

Questions for discussion:
- What are the implications for these findings when focusing on inclusion in kindergartens?
- What theory can be used to discuss these findings?
- What conclusions can be drawn from this?

Author

• Anne Grethe Sønsthagen, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences