Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2010, Page 30

leiKSKÓlaStarf af SJÓnarHÓli foreldra
Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 19(1–2)/201030
um Höfund
Jóhanna Einarsdóttir (joein@hi.is) er prófessor við Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands.
Hún lauk kennaraprófi frá Kennaraskóla Íslands árið 1973, B.S. prófi frá Háskólanum í
Illinois í Bandaríkjunum árið 1976 og meistaraprófi frá sama skóla árið 1977. Árið 2000
lauk hún doktorsprófi í menntunarfræðum ungra barna frá Háskólanum í Illinois. Hún
hefur stundað rannsóknir á málefnum leikskólans um árabil, ritað fjölda fræðigreina,
og ritstýrt fræðilegum tímaritum og bókum um efnið. Hún stofnaði Rannsóknarstofu
í menntunarfræðum ungra barna (RannUng) árið 2007 og hefur stýrt henni síðan.
Preschool from the perspective of parents
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Considerable changes have taken place in Icelandic early childhood education
throughout the past few decades. Preschool has changed from being geared primarily
toward children with evident social needs to becoming universal. It is now considered
the first level of schooling. Early childhood programs have grown rapidly in the last
decades in accordance with the increase of women’s participation in the workforce,
and today, most Icelandic parents work outside their homes. Children can start
preschool as early as one year old, but most children enroll when they are two or three
years old.
The aim of this study was to shed light on the quality of preschool from the
perspective of the parents. Quality is regarded as a relative concept, and definitions
are likely to change, according to context as well as the values and beliefs of various
stakeholders. This notion for defining quality considers multiple truths and voices.
Therefore, the varied perspectives of the different stakeholder groups, including
educational authorities, school directors, teachers, parents, educational experts, and
the children themselves, should be acknowledged.
The study participants were 43 parents of five and six-year-old children in three
preschools in Reykjavík who participated in focus interviews about the preschool
curriculum. The focus group interviews were semi-structured, with an emphasis on
the parents’ views of the role of preschool and its pedagogy and curriculum, as well
as their children’s daily life in preschool. We asked which aspects of the children’s
preschool learning and activities the parents considered important and what they
were most and least satisfied with in their children’s preschool experience. Parents’
perspectives of cooperation with the preschool and participation in decision-making
were also examined.
The results of the study show that in general the parents were pleased with their
children‘s preschool education. When asked why their children attended preschool,
many parents mentioned that their children needed a safe place to stay while they
were working. However, they also stressed the importance of preschool as the first
educational level. For them, it was most important that their children were happy