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Comparing Racial Minority and White Parents’ Experiences with Early Childcare Teachers

Wed, April 7, 3:15 to 4:15pm EDT (3:15 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

The relationship between early childcare teachers and the families they service is an important relationship to develop, as quality relationships have been associated with positive teacher, parent, and child outcomes (Chung et al., 2005; Elicker et al., 2013, Kim et al., 2013). In a successful parent-teacher relationship, parents must feel that both they and their children are seen and heard (Bernhard et al., 1998; Lightfoot, 2004), meaning parents believe that their child’s teacher respects their cultural values, parenting styles and goals for the child, and show concern and interest in the family both inside and outside of the classroom (Roggman et al., 2008).
However, not all parents feel respected and valued by their child’s teacher, or the programs in which services are embedded. In particular, parents of preschool children from racial minority groups more often feel disconnected from teachers in developmental goals for children and methods for supporting these goals; additionally, they are more likely to feel teachers lack racial understanding and awareness (Bernhard et al., 1998). Little research has been conducted on whether these disparities in teacher-parent relationship quality exist for families of infants/toddlers. Given the import of the first three years of life as foundational for later educational success (Zero to Three, 2020), and the central role of childcare providers in supporting these early experiences (Bagdi & Vacca, 2005), it is important to understand how the quality of parent-teacher relationships vary so that disparities are addressed to ensure that all families receive the support they need in their child’s first out-of-home educational experiences. This study describes variation in parents’ experiences of teachers’ responsiveness, knowledge of their family, and the quality of parent-teacher communication for parents of infants/toddlers served by Early Head Start programs. We examine whether there are differences in experiences of racial minority parents and white parents in these three aspects of the parent-teacher relationship.
As part of a larger intervention study, a parent needs assessment was conducted to understand parents’ experiences of parenting, their needs for support, and their relationships with their childcare center and their children’s teachers. 100 parents (42% racial minority; 52% white; 6% did not provide race) of infants/toddlers served by Early Head Start programs completed a brief survey. Likert items were used to assess their endorsement of statements about their experiences with their childcare center and teacher.
Independent samples t-tests were used to compare the responses of parents in each racial group. Preliminary findings suggest that although parents’ perceptions of teachers’ responsiveness (t(91)=-1.19, p=0.24) and family-specific knowledge (t(91)=-0.13, p=0.89) did not differ by racial group, their perceptions of their parent-teacher communication did (t(91)=-3.15, p<0.00). Racial minority parents (M=1.45, SD=0.50) perceived lower quality communication with their children’s teacher than did white parents (M=1.83, SD=0.63). Further analyses will be conducted to better understand families’ experiences, accounting for socio-economic context. Results bring awareness to disparities in families’ earliest experiences of engagement in their child’s education, and should be used by researchers, childcare program administrators, and teachers to better support families from different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

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