by Glenda Mac Naughton (Author), PatrickHughes (Author)
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.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 232
Publisher: Open University Press
Published: 01 Feb 2011
ISBN 10: 0335243738
ISBN 13: 9780335243730
Patrick Hughes is a Research Fellow at the CEIEC. He has taught at London University, the Open University in the UK and at Deakin University in Australia, and has been an independent communications consultant. Mac Naughton and Hughes are a well-established writing team whose work includes books, book chapters and articles.