Parents and Professionals in Early Childhood Settings

We/they are always available... but in snatches of time
Understanding the professional
Revealing ignorance
Joining in - the benefits and costs
We speak English here
We respect 'their' culture
Disclosing personal details - who needs to know?
Welcoming parents... but not really in this space
Ways to communicate... but don’t ruffle their feathers
I just want some feedback!
She'll love the sausage sizzle!
I'm learning how to teach my child to read
They're just not involved
Boys who like to be different
Lesbian mums - what's the fuss?
Are we genuine partners and how do we know?
That's jargon to me!

Parents and Professionals in Early Childhood Settings addresses the complex and sometimes controversial issues that emerge from the care and education of young children. Staff and parents in early childhood settings can find ample advice about how to promote good communication, but much of that advice has no grounding in their daily lives. Instead, it prescribes an established set menu of communication tools, such as newsletters, notebooks and message boards that rarely respond to what staff and families say about relationships between them.

Drawing on the authors' research with hundreds of parents, staff and students, the book explores relationships between staff and families through a series of 'issue stories'. Each story features the voices and perspectives of 'real' staff and families and captures their various understandings, desires and feelings about a complex, difficult and/or controversial issue.

The authors support each 'issue story' with snippets from relevant international research, 'Fairness Alerts' that highlight unfair thinking habits and show how to challenge them, and some 'points to ponder' and 'points to discuss' that encourage readers to extend their thinking about the issue/s in the story.

Parents and Professionals in Early Childhood Settings is written for the diverse people in the international field of early childhood education and care. They include staff, students, academics, trainers, curriculum advisors, policy officers and managers, together with the parents and other carers of young children.