Reflections - the importance of families in children's education

Recently, both of us, in a variety of different projects on which we have been working have been re-examining the importance of families in relation to children’s education. This has caused us to reflect on some of the changes that have occurred over the years in the family/school partnerships in education and where we are at now.

It has surprised some of the early years’ teachers we’ve been working with to hear that ‘home visiting’ was ‘institutionalised’ for pre-school teachers in the days when kindergartens were independent and it was expected that teachers would visit children’s homes on the day on which the children were not with them. That was a major reason (along with planning and administration) for the DOTT time that they had, but which teachers in schools didn’t have. And Anna remembers the fights when pre-primary centres first began, to retain that time for pre-primary teachers when they were no longer going to be responsible for administration of their centres – but we argued that they still needed to plan and that they would still be visiting parents!

We also recall the change in terminology from ‘mothers’ to ‘parents’ and now to ‘families’ as we began to realise that there were now many others in families who interact with schools, not just ‘mothers’ who cut up fruit in pre-school, ‘parents’ who both might turn up to report meetings and now to ‘families’ that might include other siblings, grandparents, various aunts and uncles (in some cultures) and other members of blended families, all of whom have a legitimate interest in the child and the school.

Another reflection is about the shift in thinking from families as ‘out there’, to be kept at the gate (at least as far as most schools were concerned), and that education was the province of the school and teachers, to the notion that education is about partnerships.