Parental Involvement in Early Years Education, with a particular ...

An Lárionad um Fhorbairt
agus Oideachas na Luath-Óige
Parental Involvement in Early Years Education,
with a particular focus on Travellers
Abstract from a work in progress
By Anne Boyle

Parental Involvement in Early Years Education, with a particular focus on Travellers © CECDE 2004
The preschools for Travellers National Evaluation Report recommended that “Each preschool should
… develop and implement a policy to encourage involvement by parents” (p. 86). A genuine
partnership between the parents and the educators will benefit the child and ensure continuity
between the home and the school.
The Traveller preschools evolved from a concern regarding the low numbers of Traveller children
attending primary school as reported by the Commission of Itinerancy 1963. They were established by
voluntary effort and since the 1970s have been part funded by the Department of Education and
Science as one of the compensatory programmes for Traveller children. In the 1970s, Travellers were
regarded as being in deficit and the perceived solution lay in changing them so that they would
become more like the majority. Sr. Colette Dwyer wrote in 1974, “A Travelling child is never taught to
speak – it picks up what it can from the very limited vocabulary it hears used by the older children
and adults. The experience of a Traveller child, as compared with that of a child in the settled
community, is incredibly limited” (Travelling People, p. 94). This view of minority children was
common in the US also, according to William Labov in his analysis of the Headstart Programme.
Meaningful partnership with parents is one way of ensuring the child’s cultural background is
reflected in educational decision making. Kathleen Lynch says, “Much talent and commitment is lost
when schooling does not recognise cultural difference”. The Task Force Report on the Travelling
Community 1995 recommended that “consultation and involvement with preschools of parents …
should be encouraged and developed” (FR41, p. 173). My research in 1995 indicated a limited
involvement of parents in the operation of the Traveller preschools (M.Ed. thesis, UCG).
Parents have a constitutional right to involvement in their children’s education and many policy
documents and reports over the years have emphasised the importance of this.
When the Early Start Preschools were piloted in 1994, parental involvement was build into the
programme in three ways:
• Parents were present in the classroom.
• Learning activities were sent home
• Courses for parents.
According to the evaluation of the programme, parents were involved in to varying degrees in all
three aspects. The Home School Community Liaison Scheme is another initiative which promotes
“partnership between parents and teachers” (Conaty, p. 69).
Parental Involvement requires partnership, respect for diversity and trust between parents and the
school. For this to be meaningful it is necessary to engage in dialogue. Paulo Freire says, “Without
dialogue there can be no communication, and without communication there can be no true
education” (p. 65).
The Task Force and the Evaluation Reports call for parents to access the school directly, without
mediators. Mechanisms to involve parents should reach out to all parents and not simply select those
who find it easier to relate to the school.
Parental Involvement is one way of ensuring that the home culture is reflected in the school. Louise
Derman Sparks says “when schools devaluate or fail to recognise home-culture strengths … they take
away the tools the family and child have to be effective”. She also shows how people can imply an
unjustified equivalence between diversity and disadvantage where the victim of a societal problem is
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Parental Involvement in Early Years Education, with a particular focus on Travellers © CECDE 2004
identified as the source of the problem. When this happens the child is seen as disadvantaged because
of difference, and regarded as being in deficit in comparison with the majority.
Training for educators and parents is needed to build a partnership, based on trust and respect for
diversity, that will benefit the child, the family and the school.
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