Family Matters: Defining and Describing Caregiver Engagement in an Early Childhood Program

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Families are often seen as the first teachers for their children during the early years and continue to play a critical role by reinforcing learning opportunities at home and providing encouragement for academic achievement when children enter school (US Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2018). Studies have shown that early childhood programs with high levels of family engagement increase self-regulation, improved math and language skills on receptive tests, and has been linked to later academic achievement in kindergarten and the later years, including higher grades and graduations rates (Ayoub, Vallotton, & Mastergeorge, 2011; Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2012; Graue, Clements, Reynolds, & Niles, 2004). Therefore, family engagement is often included as a core component to early childhood programs.
However, creating environments and communities within early childhood settings that promote high levels of family engagement can be difficult. Some of the barriers to family engagement include inadequate preparation of teachers, guidelines that do not provide specific activities and actions to promote engagement, lack of resources and importance given to family engagement (DHHS, 2011). Ferguson and colleagues (2008) found that misunderstandings about parent and teacher roles could lead to mistrust and make it difficult to build the relationships necessary for family engagement. This qualitative study was developed to better understand how caregivers and program staff defined, valued, and experienced family engagement in a center-based early childhood program that includes intensive family engagement as a pillar of its model.
In this study, 15 caregivers with children attending the program and 12 program staff participated in semi-structured interviews. The key questions participants were asked centered on how they defined family engagement, how important it is, how participants described different levels of engagement, expectations, and barriers to engagement. Staff and caregivers were asked to rate the overall level and their personal level of family engagement.
Preliminary findings showed that family engagement was understood by the caregivers and the staff as the process in which they worked as a team to support the development of the child. Consensus among the staff rated families as moderately engaged. However, staff views diverged when discussing the criteria for rating family engagement and expectations for how engaged families should be with the program. Caregivers felt engagement was an important component but noted the greatest barrier to increased engagement was time. Although the program has specific staff members devoted to family engagement, caregivers saw the teacher and the conversations with the teacher as the primary activity associated with engagement. The staff focused on family engagement were characterized as supervisors by several caregivers, highlighting the confusion about the different roles within the center.
The preliminary findings suggest that having clearer benchmarks, expectations, and communication about the roles of the staff may help the program to improve family engagement practices. More in-depth coding in MAXQDA using a primarily deductive approach based on the aforementioned topics is underway and additional findings are forthcoming.

Authors

• Katelyn Hepworth, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)
  Presenting Author

• Mashael Altwijri, Princess Nourah Bint Abdularhman University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joseph Byrd, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helen H Raikes, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author