Background and Importance of Early Childhood Education

Early childhood education can be defined as a period from the conception through eight years of age. Bredekamp (2016) mentioned that the early years of the young children’s life can be critical. The early years determine the children’s thriving and survival in life. These years lay the foundation for their holistic development and learning. Bruce (2012) referred young children as learning sponges. It is during these years the children develop their physical, cognitive, emotional and social skills, which they require to succeed in their lives. These early years of experiences are largely dependent on the way the family supports their child.

The topic has been chosen in order to throw light on the importance of early childhood education and the involvement of their parents into this. Moreover, the topic will help in investigating the changing practices of parenting, family structures as well as children’s behaviors and attitudes, within the context of the families. In addition to this, reviewing the journals has helped in understanding the concepts clearly. It has helped in proving several points, like raising awareness among the families regarding childhood development, structures, family patterns as well as relationships. The significant researches since the past years have explained the fact that the involvement of family members is considered to be a crucial part for the success of young children.

According to Becker, Bryman and Ferguson (2012), early childhood care and parental involvement plays a major role in the children’s overall development as well as provides valuable support to the families and their children. It is important to understand the overall impact of educational services in order to ensure their accessibility as well as quality. High quality child education and care always have a positive influence over the child’s overall development as well as school readiness. This can be done by providing them with social and educational experiences. Several researches have revealed the fact that only high quality education and appropriate behavior of both the educator and the family members can help in contributing to the overall childhood development.

A child first learns about what is right and what is wrong from his/her parents. Modern day parents face many issues in the teaching values. Children now a day, uses the internet and are bombarded with messages that are at times, inconsistent with the values as well as behavioral standards of the parents. Involved and committed parents have the potential to strengthen the child’s desire in making good choices. The young children have significant role in making contributions to their family lives as well as own development. They can achieve this by learning good values and principles from their parents as well as educators. The parents are their primary educators and therefore, it is necessary for them to teach about sharing, serving others and setting boundaries or limitations (Bruce 2012).

Research Topic and Research Questions

The early childhood professional totally agree upon the fact that a good method of education helps in meeting the young kids’ demands and requirements. As per Crowley (2017) opinion, the early childhood professionals need to adopt several ways for meeting the needs of the parents and their children as the family structures and patterns change, on a frequent note. In addition to this, the parents and family systems have the responsibility for meeting the requirements of their children. Researchers have revealed the fact that parents are the primary educators of their children. The experience and guidance, they gain from their parents helps in shaping the future of the children.

In the words of Roberts-Holmes (2018), it is inside the family that basic approaches, literacy skills and values are being reinforced and set. Moreover, it is highly important for the early childhood professionals and educators to work along with the children’s parents, in order to assist them on getting a good start of parenting. The educators and teachers need to address the issues and problems of the families so that they assist their children in an efficient manner.

Working with the agencies of family services can help the educators in understanding their living patterns, structures and more. In addition to this, schools should have adequate and affordable health care means in order to keep the children happy and healthy. Wallace and Poulson (2004) examined that the early childhood educators who work with both the children and their parents, tend to benefit both. However, a good instance of working with the families can be referred to conducting literacy programs for the parents, where the educators need to organize several sessions with them and educate on childhood education and studies.

The literacy programs organized for the parents help in providing them with proper trainings and assist them with proper parenting techniques, strategies, behaviors and values for growth as well as development of the children. Moreover, the living patterns, family structures as well as other factors, matters highly in their development, education and growth. Aubrey et al. (2005) mentioned that an ever increasing number of mothers are presently employed. About fifty percent of the women with children below six years of age were into workforce, in the year 2004. In addition to this, around seventy percent of the women with children above six years of age were working in reputed firms.

This aspect of the working parents created a huge demand for early childhood programs. In Fraser (2004) opinion, the professionals and educators are responsible for keeping their quality of teaching affordable, accessible and high for giving proper care to all children. Moreover, the fathers should also discover the ways of parenting and interacting with their children. Greene and Hogan (2005) stated that men do play a major role in providing their kids with basic nurturance, love and care. Increasingly, the fathers also need to be more concerned as per their roles and actively participate in the events like before, during and after child birth.

Literature Review

Elango et al. (2015) examined that fathers are rediscovering new methods as well as ways of parenting and interacting with their children. They are getting more involved in the cognitive development of the children. Moreover, the fathers are often seen participating in the school meeting regarding studies, helping and reading with their kids. This is motivating and encouraging the young children to a large extent and bringing in positivism within the family. It is important that men and women equally distribute their works and pay adequate attention to their children.

Moreover, Essa (2012) examined that modern days have seen an increase in the number of single parents. The ethnic groups are represented in a disproportionate way or manner among the single parent families. However, there are several factors that are leading to such problematic situations. The primary thing is the high rate of pregnancy rates at lower socio and economic segments. In addition to this, the pregnancy rates among the teenagers are also higher at poor Hispanic, African and American populations because of fewer opportunities of life, economic constraints as well as illiteracy.

In addition to this, Gordon and Browne (2013) examined that in United Kingdom about fifty percent of marriages are ending in divorce. The young children who experience such challenges of divorce and separation are being left susceptible to the problems like depressions. This in turn, hampers their education system to a large extent and affects them in a negative way. In recent days, the family relationships are becoming too complex due to the rising rates of divorce, separation and more. These are the major factors which should be addressed adequately as well as appropriately, keeping the children’s future into consideration.

Parental involvement helps in extending the teaching outside the schools. It helps in creating more positive experiences for the children and also assists them in performing better in academics. Becker, Bryman and Ferguson (2012) mentioned that it is essential for the parents to support the child’s learning, which happens at preschools as well as at homes. The parents who are well aware with the happenings in their child’s classrooms or at the child care facilities are better able to establish connections or bonds with the children. This connection or bond is considered to be the key component for the child’s overall growth or development.

According to Bredekamp (2016), the parental involvement in early childhood education not only extends teaching outside the classroom, but it also helps in creating a positive experience for the children and assists them in performing better at schools. The parental involvement in the early childhood education can be extended up to the experiences, which the child explores in the classrooms to the real world activities, taking place at homes. The parents, who take part in their children’s learning process at schools, gain an idea regarding their competencies and in-competencies. It helps them to work on their children’s areas of improvements. This in turn, improves ability as well as their confidence level.

Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

However, Aubrey et al. (2005) opined that one of the biggest challenges for the childhood educators is finding out better ways for engaging the parents into their children’s learning. Educators can make a positive impact on their kids’ learning ability by establishing good communication lines between the child care centers and parents. This is a way of making strong efforts for involving the parents as a crucial part in the children’s education. For encouraging parental involvement into childhood learning, the educators need to invite them at schools, so that they can gain an idea regarding their kids’ progress.

In addition to this, the educators must make the families comfortable with the educational center and work a long way to make them feel at ease, so that they get more involved. The educators should ask the parents whether they would be interested or not, in participating into the classroom activities along with their child. This will help them get more involved with the kids and moreover, the parents should take turns and read to the children, draw along with them and take part in activities in a playful manner (Panneerselvam 2014).

These activities of the parents helps them in getting more involved with the kids and they in turn tend to excel in both academics and extra-curricular activities. Moreover, Roberts-Holmes (2018) examined that parents now a days, do not get time in getting involved into the parent teacher meetings, which is not at all correct. The parents should get some time and attend such meetings, as it helps in giving some ideas regarding their kids’ progress. In addition to this, he mentioned that the parents, who are more actively involved into their child’s early education, are more likely to stay involved with them when they enter the elementary school.

By encouraging the participation of the parents in their child’s education, the educators will be able to support the children beyond their early years. This will also enable the educators to make the children’s family members a crucial part of their education as well as their future. Mukherji and Albon (2018) examined that the parents who are more involved into their children’s education, tend to create a kind of connection between the home as well as the school. Those parents who participate into their child’s activities are aware of various aspects of their children’s day.

At homes, the parents should be able to replicate the activities that the child experiences at his/her schools, in order to extend those. According to Clark (2004), this helps in enhancing their competency level as well as confidence. The ideas that are being generated from the classrooms give the parents an inspiration for the homely activities, which coincide along with their classroom tasks. The involved parents learn the names of their children’s friends and have a sense of those ones, who may cause their kids some troubles. In addition to this, the involved parents also gain an idea of their child’s friend circle.

Impact of Education on a Child’s Development and Learning

The specific questions, which are to be addressed by the researcher, are;

• How are the parents responsible for the children’s educational progress? What are they supposed to do in order to understand their important role in the life of their child? Is it important for the parents to become involved in their child’s schools and why should they be?
• Do the parents believe that their valuable involvement can help in exerting a positive influence on their child’s educational outcomes?
• Do the parents perceive that their children and the schools want them to get involved?

For this particular research, the information will be collected from various sources, which includes both primary as well as secondary data sources. Starting from the beginning the primary data will be collected from various sources such as surveys, questionnaires and observations. In addition to these form of sources, the secondary sources are also there, which consists of the information that are particularly available on the internet or online sources. Moreover, both the types of data will be utilized for conducting this study. The primary sources such as surveys and questionnaires will help the researcher in gaining huge personal knowledgeable insights.

As explained by Punch and Oancea (2014), the secondary sources are the ones that are being published in several journals, literatures, websites, blogs, books and others. The secondary data or information help a lot in reviewing the articles that exist already and entirely based on the topic that is being researched. For this study, the researcher will gather sources from both the primary and secondary data for the establishment of the report. In addition to this, the secondary information will be collected from various observations, relevant websites and relevant journals. It is important to mention here that the secondary data collection method will enable the researcher in coming across relevant concepts or ideas in relation with the topic.

Both the primary and secondary research method will help in gaining additional information regarding the impact of the family members, patterns and structures over the development and education of their children. Thus, it can be stated that both the research methods will help in gaining useful insights and established the study to a large extent. However, taking the ethical factor into consideration, it is important to mention that there are some professional and ethical issues, which the researchers needs to abide by.

The surveys will also help in gaining useful information, enabling the researcher to conduct further study on this. The survey will be conducted among the professionals and the family members as well, in the related fields will reveal some useful facts. It is proven the fact that family structures, patterns and behaviors highly impact the child’s behavior, attitude as well as their academics from the literature reviews. In simpler terms, the children who are being raised in lone parental support are seen to be less attentive in the classrooms and scoring lesser marks in their academics along with lesser interests.

Challenges faced by Modern Day Parents in Teaching Values

The students with less support from the parents are found to be doing less well in both the academics and extra-curricular activities, than the ones who get support from both of their parents. In simpler terms, the children who get raised in the lone parental support are needed to be given extra care so that they do not feel lonely or depressed. The parental separations or divorce cases are being seen as something to be entirely associated with adverse outcomes of the young children and kids (Thomas 2009).

According to Tertoolen (2017), during the early childhood years, the parent’s values and attitudes get entirely carried on to their children. In this particular time, their self concepts and esteem get easily developed and therefore, the family members need to take proper care regarding this. The behaviors and attitudes of the parents highly influence their children. In reference to this, the parents need to acquire certain skills and need to take proper care of their children in order to support their educational system, strongly. Therefore, it can be said that a supportive and loving family leaves a greater as well as positive impact on the children.

As per Panneerselvam (2014) the positive impact on the children is very much important for the overall development of the children as well as it helps in developing their health and education. If a child feels secured, safe and loved within their family, it will assist in the formation of their self concepts, esteem and well being. In addition to these factors, the child will become more socially competent. Their communication skills will be developed along with their family connections. The involvement or participation of the parents in their child’s activities, like outdoor exploration, reading and drawing together can assist the children in becoming socially competent.

The children who get involved into the playful activities with their families may jump into several games, at the time they attend schools. In addition to this, Roopnarine and Johnson (2012) examined that these kids tend to show independent behaviors in several situations. It is however, seen that parental involvement into the playful activities of their children assists them in development a strong self-sense. Educators have revealed the fact that the family members and parents have a strong power to influence the development of early childhood. It can be encouraged by supporting various activities like literacy programs or childhood lessons and others.

Ethical Issues Involved in the Proposed Study

Spodek and Saracho (2014) mentioned that it is highly important for the educators and parents to encourage the children on their reading skills practices as well as math. The parents need to increase the school readiness among their kids, so that they do not get reluctant to visit schools. They should love their schools and be always ready to go there. The educators also play a major role in this factor, as they have the power to influence the children to go to schools every day.

The kids should always be school ready. In addition to this, even the early lessons such as prayers, counting objects, singing alphabets and others lead to more successful environment at the classrooms. Wortham and Hardin (2015) mentioned that the risk factors among the family members have the power to influence the development of the children. The risk factors may even impact upon their attitudes as well as behavior. For example; the factors like domestic violence, drug abuse, poverty and others lead to the behavioral issues within the small children. Therefore, the parents should take care of these factors and can even seek help from the trainers, professionals, doctors, educators and others.

For the research, the researcher will conduct a survey among 50 educators and parents of the young children, for getting valuable insights.

The researchers should maintain some of the professionals and ethical issues, while conducting the entire research work. According to Hartas (2010), the researchers should maintain some privacy in relation to the unpublished data or information. However, the researchers are not supposed to leak any sort of personal information or details of the survey respondents, without their consent. It is important for the researcher to be sure of all the facts that are being collected from the primary as well as secondary sources. Fabrication of any information or facts is highly unethical and should be strictly avoided. Moreover, the researchers should take prior consent from all the respondents regarding personal information for the whole research procedure.

References

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Becker, S., Bryman, A. and Ferguson, H. eds., 2012. Understanding research for social policy and social work: themes, methods and approaches. Policy Press.

Bredekamp, S., 2016. Effective practices in early childhood education: Building a foundation. Boston: Pearson.

Bruce, T., 2012. Early childhood education. Hachette UK.

Clark, A., 2004. The mosaic approach and research with young children.

Crowley, K., 2017. Child development: A practical introduction. Sage.

Elango, S., García, J.L., Heckman, J.J. and Hojman, A., 2015. Early childhood education (No. w21766). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Essa, E.L., 2012. Introduction to early childhood education. Cengage Learning.

Fraser, S. ed., 2004. Doing research with children and young people. Sage.

Gordon, A.M. and Browne, K.W., 2013. Beginnings & beyond: Foundations in early childhood education. Cengage learning.

Greene, S. and Hogan, D. eds., 2005. Researching children’s experience: Approaches and methods. Sage.

Hartas, D., 2010. Educational research and inquiry: Key issues and debates. Educational research and inquiry: Qualitative and quantitative approaches, pp.13-32.

Kjellstrand, E.K. and Harper, M., 2012. Yes, she can: An examination of resiliency factors in middle-and upper-income single mothers. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 53(4), pp.311-327.

Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M. and Jessop, J. eds., 2012. Ethics in quantitative research. Sage.

Mukherji, P. and Albon, D., 2018. Research methods in early childhood: An introductory guide. Sage.

Panneerselvam, R., 2014. Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..

Punch, K.F. and Oancea, A., 2014. Introduction to research methods in education. Sage.

Roberts-Holmes, G., 2018. Doing your early years research project: A step by step guide. Sage.

Roopnarine, J. and Johnson, J., 2012. Approaches to early childhood education. Pearson Higher Ed.

Spodek, B. and Saracho, O.N., 2014. Handbook of research on the education of young children. Routledge.

Tertoolen, J.M., 2017. Exploring young children’s expressions related to school contexts: A study on the context of children’s expressions related to school contexts.

Thomas, G., 2009. How to do your research projects: A guide for pupils in education and applied social sciences.

Wallace, M. and Poulson, L., 2004. Critical reading for self-critical writing. Learning to read critically in teaching and learning, pp.3-36.

Wortham, S.C. and Hardin, B.J., 2015. Assessment in early childhood education. Pearson.