The primary aim of the research was to explore the factors that play an important role in influencing parental decision to choose early education facilities for their children. This research was primarily conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship that existed between the concept of quality of education and personal choice. This chapter will sketch how the research findings can contribute to the generation of a deeper insight into the role that parents exert in the improvement of the early care and education. Thematic analysis was adopted for exploration of the qualitative research. The chapter will examine and record different themes from the data findings across the interviews that were conducted among 30 parents (all females). The themes identified from the research are given below:
Engagement of a child with the parents usually begins with the start of the day and continues throughout the day. The success of engagement with parents largely depends on the approachability and accessibility of the child to its parents. Parents have been found to play a crucial role in the overall success of their child by engaging in an affectionate relationship with the latter. School staff and parents should work together to bring about an improvement in the overall development and learning of the child, thus enhancing the health outcomes (Pallini et al., 2014). Data from the interviews and questionnaires suggest that an estimated 70% of the parents visited other pre-school settings before they decided upon one organisation for their child. The findings also suggested that owing to the fact that most female participants were working mothers, their desire to return to work after pregnancy played a pivotal role in admitting their child to pre-schools that were easily accessible (50%). These findings are consistent with the fact that while selecting a pre-school, most parents take into consideration the curriculum, academics, costs, and length of duration that the child spends in the areas. While traditional perceptions and thoughts have placed attention on kindergartens as the official beginning of the education of a child, recent evidences suggest that the years that precede this milestone are crucial for the learning phase (Flook et al., 2015).
The concept of feeling valued, important and loved is largely responsible for enhancing the self-worth and self-esteem of the child that is considered utmost necessary for leading a fulfilling life. However, inadequate parental availability governs the individual temperament of a child and also influences the emotional and social development. Besides, returning to paid workforce has also been identified as a matter of serious concern by mothers who take their time off, to spend with their toddlers. Hence, all of these aforementioned factors are consistent with the data that elaborate on the less parental time, and desire to resume work among mothers, which make them enrol their children in pre-schools (Wilder, 2014).
There is mounting evidence that has identified lack of adequate transportation as a factor that controls the selection of a school (Young, Austin & Growe, 2013). Parents usually opt for a different pre-school, if there lays the provision for better transportation. Additionally, the responses also suggested that less distance between the pre-schools and the parent’s office served as another selection criterion (50%). Location plays an important role in selecting early education and child care. The impact of location of the pre-school services to the personal knowledge of the parents about the area and the available provisions were largely governed by their visits to the place. Furthermore, the visits also played a critical role in increasing the involvement of the parents with the pre-schools, thus helping them exert their decision in relation to child admission.
This theme is in accordance with the second research objective of the parental priorities that come into play during selection of a pre-school. Most children were enrolled in the pre-schools at 2-3 years of age (80%), which was associated with the reduction in healthcare complications among the children. Some of the most common complications that arise after childbirth include post-partum infections and deterioration in the health status of the children (Stephansson et al., 2016). However, the fact that most mothers displayed a willingness to resume work within 2-3 years of their pregnancy elaborates on the enhancement of the overall health and wellbeing of both the child and their mothers. An estimated 24% of the parents at setting A suggested that they were well aware of the curriculum of study prevalent in the pre-school settings. Adequate knowledge on the curriculum makes all parents aware of the benefits that the early education would reflect on the learning capabilities of their child. Preschool curriculum commonly comprise of different academic domains that encompass literacy, oral language, mathematics, and science (Vuorinen et al., 2014).
The primary advantage of a comprehensive and thorough curriculum is related to enhancement of the social skills and an improvement in the attention span of all children. Furthermore, 30% parents ranked the educational approach that was followed across the different settings as a chief selection criteria. Research evidence have defined educational approaches as tactics that promote an engaging and rigorous curriculum that are grounded on inquiry-based procedures. Furthermore, the association between a good school culture and development of a child has been well recognised (Akalin et al., 2014). The fact that several educational programmes are organised by taking into consideration the social, academic, physical and cultural differences of a child made it essential for the parents to gain an insight into the curriculum practiced in the pre-schools, prior to children admission. Student teacher ratio refers to the student number that attends the educational setting, divided by the total number of teachers teaching in the institution. Educational institutions that that have a low student to teacher ratio facilitate better management of a class by an educator (von Suchodoletz et al., 2014).
Thus, parental knowledge about the ratio played an imperative role in making the parents decide about the pre-school in which their children were admitted. Having an idea about the curriculum followed in the concerned schools can also be attributed to the fact that education for young children is primarily relational and physical, and exerts a direct effect on their overall development. Furthermore, early childhood development also governs the adults that the child will become at a later stage in life. Hence, the parents were quite conscious about the early childhood learning opportunities that the selected pre-schools offered.
Under circumstances when the early childhood teachers adopt a holistic approach, they place their due attention on the personal, physical, spiritual, emotional, social, and cognitive learning aspects of the child. While undertaking an investigation of the parental perceptions on the role of early childhood education, 30% parents stated that they did not consider pre-school education important for development of a child. This data was in contrast to previous findings and responses to other questions that have been discussed above. Time and again researchers have proved the effectiveness of early childhood education in enhancing performance of children at their schools, and inculcating in them an enthusiasm for learning (Ambrose, Sriraman & Cross, 2013). Children who have been identified to receive adequate early education are usually more curious and confident, which in turn makes them show better academic performance.
This serves as an explanation for the fact that 50% parents expected enhanced academic skills among their children, following enrolment of the latter into pre-schools. 36% parents also expected that pre-schools would help children to socialise more with each other. Early education helps in the process of gaining an understanding on the different ways by which a child can get along with peers (Trawick-Smith & Smith, 2014). Readiness for schools is not merely restricted to grasping academic skills. Some of the major social skills for pre-schoolers are associated with learning of cooperation, conflict resolution, communication, and self-control. The fact that pre-schooler children often sit down with their peers and engage in a rudimentary conversation with each other helps in enhancing the social skills. Thus, the findings accurately represented the expectations of parents in relation to the benefits that enrolment in a pre-school might exert on the overall development of their child.
An estimated 5% parents also stated that they anticipate engagement of their children in playful activities in a pre-school. Upon engaging a child in play, in all types of environment, they get naturally involved in a plethora of physical activities that help in the development of motor skills of the child. Such an environment has also been found imperative in promoting competence among the children. This is usually achieved by triggering a sense of independent exploration amid the learners and helping them acquire skills through play (McClintic & Petty, 2015). Over the past decades, a range of holistic educational approaches have been identified that allow all children to learn at their own pace, while responding to their readiness for specific intellectual and sensory stimuli (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015). Hence, the fact that most of the parents placed an emphasis on their expectancy of a learning environment that extends beyond the domains of academic learning into the field of emotional and social wellbeing was in accordance with previous research studies (Eisenberg, Spinrad& Knafo?Noam, 2015). Hence, it can be stated that the early experiences of a child such as, the bonds that they develop with their parents and their initial learning experiences create a deep impact on their future cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development.
The main limitation to the study is the respondents for the survey are the mothers of the child. Initially the main focus of the study was understanding the parental priorities however, since all the respondents were female, the focus of the study shifted to maternal priorities. However, Torres et al. (2014) stated that since India culture is guided by patriarchalism, the main decisions of a family are taken by men. Decision of the father holds considerable importance towards the selecting the pre-school for the child. So taking maternal priorities into consideration towards selection of the pre-school of the child will only provide a one sided approach of the study. Moreover, the study did not considered whether the selected group of participants are the first time mother or they have more than one ward like siblings or twin children. According to Cherkasova et al. (2013) having twin children increases the tendency of attention sensitive hyperactive disorder which increases the parent tendency to enrol their child in pre-school. Moreover, when a couple have two children they fail to manage both of them and thus tend to sent the elder counter-part to pre-school in order to care or look after the infant or the younger siblings. However, the perspectives of having siblings and its influence over the parental perception of pre-school selection were also not included in the study. Out of 30 selected participants, 60% of them belong to the age group of 26 to 28 years and only 1% is from the age group of 32 to 34 years. The age groups of 26 to 28 years are regarded as millennial parents. According to Ray et al. (2013) millennial parents have a tendency to sent their ward to pre-school. Moreover, the parents between the age group of 26 to 28 years have an unstable career or professional life, which force them to send their wards to pre-school just in to concentrate in their work. On the other hand, people who are above the age of 30 have comparatively more stable career and thus can effectively manage their ward in comparison to the parents between the age group of 26 to 28 years (Ray et al., 2013). However, the authors failed to recruit more respondents between the age group of 32 to 34 and thus the extracted findings from the survey might be biased (selection bias). Another limitation of the study, all the 30 respondents was not enquired for the complete of set of questions. The set of questions used under settings-A differed from that of setting of B. Thus, the analysis of the results lead to biased outcome.
Conclusion
In relation to the objective one the research, “factors influence parental choice of preschool for their 2 and 3 year olds”, it can be said that the main factors influencing the choice of the mothers in sending their child of pre-school is the inability of the parents in giving adequate time to their children. Parents play an important role in overall psychological and academic development of the child via engaging them under affectionate relationship. So when the parents are unable to provide adequate support to their children, they prefer teacher of the pre-schools as the best possible options to contribute towards the overall development of the child. This is the reason why the parents take into serious consideration about the curriculum and academics pattern of the school and during of stay of their child in the pre-school before finalizing one. Another here inability of the parents to devote maximum of their time to the child is also due to the reason that the mothers want to resume their work after prolong maternity leave. Therefore, when the mother opts to resume their work, the couples seek a shelter for their child while they are away from home and thus guiding the requirement for an urgent selection of pre-school. While at pre-school, the parents also wants that during this time their child become ready with the preliminary education that are important to fetch a position in a reputed school and thus they also cross-check the academic curriculum of the pre-school.
In relation to the second objective of the study, “parents’ priorities when selecting a preschool for their 2 and 3 year olds”, it can be said that the parents’ main priority is early childhood learning and thus they send their child to pre-school. This importance provided over the early childhood education is the reason why the parents take into deep consideration about the student: teacher ratio, the academic curriculum of the school and the nature of the teachers. Having a rigorous curriculum is not comprehensive in promoting early childhood development. Having a curriculum where all mental and academic need to the child is addressed is best suited to promote early childhood education among the children. Age between 18 months to 3 years is brimmed with the psychological and the cognitive development of the children. Thus it is important to guide the children accordingly. The millennial parents are well-aware of the psychological and academic development of their child thus give importance to both the curriculum and teacher to student ratio.
The third objective of the study is “parents’ perception of the role of early years education in India” and here the main theme that has been identified from the response of the mothers of 2 to 3 year old children include holistic development of the child. Here the holistic approach mostly encompasses personal, physical, emotional, spiritual, social and cognitive development of the child. Under holistic education and development of the child, the mother of the child of the opinion that they did not considered pre-school education as one of the sole factor. The main factor which parents look for the holistic development of the child include engagement of the child in playful activity with peers of the same group in order increase their cognitive skills and the motor skills development. The parents are of the opinion that the development of cognitive skills and motor will help to promote health and well-being of their child and this in turn will help them to success in their life future both academically and in sports.
Thus, overall it can be said that lack of adequate time of the parents due to job pressure provokes them in sending their children to pre-school. However, while sending their child to pre-school they take into consideration the academic curriculum of the school and parent : teacher ratio of the school. The mothers of the children are mostly concerned about the cognitive and motor skills development of the children in comparison to the academic skills development of their child.
The analysis of the results highlighted that the mothers tend to sent their child to pre-school for at least 5 to 6 days (24%) for at least 20 hours per week because the mother wanted to go back to work (50% of the respondents). Although the study only recruited mother’s perception underlying the selection of pre-school for their child. Thus, the future scope of the study will be to analyze, factors affecting the decision of both father and mother in selecting the preschool for their children. According to Hsin and Felfe (2014), both father and mother shares equal share rights in determining the fate of their children. The perception of the factors influencing the though process of the mother towards selection of the pre-school should only be selected only of the mother is a single mother or the parent is divorced and the mother has the custody of the child or the mother is a single mother. Thus considering the factors that influence the selection of the pre-school from the perspective both father and the mother will be helpful in gathering a clear scenario of selection of the pre-school or the thought process underlying the selection of the pre-school. The scope of the study will mainly attempt to understand whether the staying away from home of working parents influencing their decision making process in ending their ward to pre-school. Hsin and Felfe (2014) are of the opinion that the working couples face high difficulty in managing their child at home. They have mindset of sending their child to pre-school as they feel that their ward will be safe in school with other children of their age group. They also think that they in the monitoring of the Montessori teacher will promote proper psychological and educational development of the child in comparison to the scenario where the child is left with the house-servant. However, this tendency gets reduced when the working couples stay with their parents. The parents feel safe in keeping their child with their grandparent rather than with mates. Moreover, keeping their wards with the grandparents, help to reduce the financial constraint like meeting the escalating fees of the pre-school and transportation cost for going to school. So the future scope of the study will mainly highlight the how the parental choice differs in pre-school selection when both the parents are either working or staying away from their parents or relatives.
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