Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2006, Síða 48

s­am­s­tarf í l e iks­kó­lUm­ V ið­ foreldra Barna af er lenUm­ UPPrUna
48
abstract
The authors of this paper were involved in a school development project called ‘The
Multicultural Preschool’ from 2001 to 2004 in Reykjavík. The objectives of the project
were to integrate the home languages and culture into the preschool program so that
the preschool environment would better reflect multicultural society. In order to achi-
eve these goals, increased emphasis was placed on parent cooperation, particularly
with parents of ethnic descent. a study was carried out by the authors to assess the
outcomes of the project. This paper focuses on the cooperation with parents of ethnic
background and the effects it had on the preschool program, the staff and the children.
The results show that through the project the staff’s efforts to increase cooperation
with the parents were successful. The parents became more visible and active in the
preschool activities which, in some cases, led to an increase in children’s self-con-
fidence. The children became more open and assertive and showed greater interest.
Finally, the staff learned that the initiative for parent cooperation must come from the
preschool.