![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
This qualitative study was an exploration of mothers' perspectives on home-school connections to better understand the variable ways families engage with schools in early childhood. The study was conducted in the USA, and included 47 mothers with preschool-aged children who participated in semi-structured interviews concerning their children's school preparation. Using a sociological framework and thematic analysis of interviews, the authors identified four themes of home-school connections: the backpack connection, school as a resource, ongoing dialogue with teachers, and a space to advocate. Study findings suggest that practices and attitudes related to home-school connections begin prior to entering kindergarten and may be influenced by a family's forms of cultural capital and habitus. This study offers an alternative viewpoint to the traditional home-school discourse by exploring the family perspective rather than the school perspective. Implications are offered for early childhood educators and family outreach personnel to help support school connectedness in early childhood and beyond.
References
Section:
| Auerbach, S. (2007) From Moral Supporters to Struggling Advocates: Reconceptualizing parent roles in education through the experience of working-class families of color, Urban Education, 42, 250–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085907300433 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Barbarin, O., Downer, J., Odom, E. & Head, D. (2010) Home-School Differences in Beliefs, Support, and Control During Public Pre-kindergarten and their Link to Children's Kindergarten Readiness, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(3), 358–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.02.003 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Barnett, M. & Taylor, L. (2009) Parental Recollections of School Experiences and Current Kindergarten Transition Practices, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(2), 140–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.11.001 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Bauch, P.A. & Goldring, E.B. (1998) Parent-Teacher Participation in the Context of School Governance, Peabody Journal of Education, 73(1), 15–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01619569809538875 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Berg, B.L. (1998) Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, 3rd edn. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Google Scholar | |
| Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms of Capital, in Richardson, J. G. (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, pp. 241–258. New York: Greenwood Press. Google Scholar | |
| Bourdieu, P. (1987) What Makes a Social Class? On the Theoretical and Practical Existence of Groups, Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 32, 1–17. Google Scholar | |
| Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Boyatzis, R.E. (1998) Transforming Qualitative Information: thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| Bradley, R.H. (1994) The HOME Inventory: Review and reflections, in Reese, H. W. (Ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior, vol. 25, pp. 241–288. San Diego, CA: Academic. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Brantlinger, E. (2003) Dividing Classes: how the middle class negotiates and rationalizes school advantage. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Brooks-Gunn, J. & Markman, L.B. (2005) The Contribution of Parenting to Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School Readiness, Future of Children, 15(1), 139–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/foc.2005.0001 Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Christian, K., Bachnan, H. & Morrison, F.J. (2001) Schooling and Cognitive Development, in Sternberg, R.J. & Grigorenko, E. (Eds) Environmental Effects on Cognitive Abilities, pp. 287–335. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Google Scholar | |
| Cole, E.R. & Omari, S.R. (2003) Race, Class and the Dilemmas of Upward Mobility for African Americans, Journal of Social Issues, 59(4), 785–802. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.0022–4537.2003.00090.x Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Coleman, J.S. (1988) Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital, American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/228943 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Collins, P.H. (1998) It's All in the Family: Intersections of gender, race, and nation, Hypatia, 13(3), 62–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1527–2001.1998.tb01370.x Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Compton-Lilly, C. (2003) Reading Families: the literate lives of urban children. New York: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
| Constantine, M.G. (2001) Addressing Racial, Ethnic, Gender, and Social Class Issues in Counselor Training and Practice, in Pope-Davis, D.B. & Coleman, H.L.K. (Eds) The Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender in Multicultural Counseling, pp. 341–350. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Cooper, C. & Christie, C. (2005) Evaluating Parent Empowerment: A look at the potential of social justice evaluation in education, Teachers College Record, 107(10), 2248–2274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–9620.2005.00591.x Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Crnic, K. & Lamberty, G. (1994) Reconsidering School Readiness: Conceptual and applied perspectives, Early Education and Development, 5(2), 91–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed0502_2 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Crozier, G. (2000) Parents and Schools: partners or protagonists? Sterling, VA: Trentham Books. Google Scholar | |
| Crozier, G. (2001) Excluded Parents: The deracialisation of parental involvement, Race, Ethnicity and Education, 4(4), 329–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613320120096643 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Crozier, G. & Davies, J. (2007) Hard to Reach Parents or Hard to Reach Schools? A Discussion of Home-School Relations, with Particular Reference to Bangladeshi and Pakistani Parents, British Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 295–313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920701243578 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| de Carvalho, M. (2001) Rethinking Family-School relationships: a critique of parental involvement in schooling. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Google Scholar | |
| Dearing, E., McCartney, K., Weiss, H., Kreider, H. & Simpkins, S. (2004) The Promotive Effects of Family Educational Involvement for Low-income Children's Literacy, Journal of School Psychology, 42(6), 445–460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2004.07.002 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Devine-Eller, A. (2005) Rethinking Bourdieu on Race: a critical review of cultural capital and habitus in the sociology of education qualitative literature. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University. Google Scholar | |
| Diamond, K., Reagan, A. & Bandyk, J. (2000) Parents' Conceptions of Kindergarten Readiness: Relationships with race, ethnicity, and development, Journal of Educational Research, 94(2), 93–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220670009598747 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Dilworth-Bart, J.E. (2012) Does Executive Function Mediate SES and Home Quality Associations with Academic Readiness?, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(3), 416–425. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2012.02.002 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Dilworth-Bart, J.E., Poehlmann, J.A., Miller, K.E. & Hilgendorf, A.E. (2011) Do Mothers' Play Behaviors Moderate the Associations between Socioeconomic Status and 24-Month Neurocognitive Outcomes of Toddlers Born Preterm or with Low Birth Weight?, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 36(3), 289–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsq064 Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Dockett, S. & Perry, B. (2007) Transitions to School: perceptions, expectations and experiences. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Google Scholar | |
| Doucet, F. & Tudge, J. (2007) Co-constructing the Transition to School: Reframing the ‘novice’ versus ‘expert’ roles of children, parents, and teachers from a cultural perspective, in Pianta, R.C., Cox, M.J. & Snow, K. L. (Eds) School Readiness and the Transition to Kndergarten in the Era of Accountability, pp. 307–328. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing. Google Scholar | |
| Fine, M. (1993) [Ap]parent involvement: Reflections on parents, power, and urban public schools, Teachers College Record, 94(4), 682–709. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Freeman, M. (2010) ‘Knowledge is Acting’: Working-class parents' intentional acts of positioning within the discursive practice of involvement, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(2), 181–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09518390903081629 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Gabler, J. & Kaufman, J. (2006) Chess, Cheerleading, Chopin: What gets you into college?, Contexts, 5(2), 39–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ctx.2006.5.2.45 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Gill, S., Winters, D. & Friedman, D. (2006) Educators' Views of Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten Readiness and Transition Practices, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(3), 213–227. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.213 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Gillborn, D., Rollock, N., Vincent, C. & Ball, S. (2012) ‘You Got a Pass, So What More do You Want?’: Race, class and gender intersections in the educational experiences of the Black middle class, Race Ethnicity & Education, 15(1), 121–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.638869 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Graue, E. (2005) Theorizing and Describing Preservice Teachers' Images of Families and Schooling, Teachers College Record, 107(1), 157–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–9620.2005.00461.x Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Graue, M.E. & Sherfinski, M. (2011) The View from the Lighted Schoolhouse: Conceptualizing home-school relations within a class size reduction reform, American Journal of Education, 117(2), 267–297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/657890 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Grenfell, M. & James, D. (1998) Bourdieu and Education: acts of practical theory. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press. Google Scholar | |
| Griffith, A.I. & Smith, D.E. (2005) Mothering for Schooling. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hedges, H. & Gibbs, C. (2005) Preparation for Teacher-Parent Partnerships: A practical experience with a family, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 26(2), 115–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10901020590955770 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hill, N.E. (2001) Parenting and Academic Socialization as They Related to School Readiness: The roles of ethnicity and family income, Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 686–697. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022–0663.93.4.686 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hughes, P. & Macnaughton, G. (2000) Consensus, Dissensus or Community: The politics of parent involvement in early childhood education, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 1(3), 241. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2000.1.3.2 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Hughes, P. & MacNaughton, G. (2001) Building Equitable Staff-Parent Communication in Early Childhood Settings: an Australian case study. ERIC Clearinghouse, doc. no. 44464. Google Scholar | |
| Jalongo, M.R., Fennimore, B., Pattnaik, J. (2004) Blended Perspectives: A global vision for high-quality early childhood education, Early Childhood Education Journal, 32(3), 143–155. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Jensen, D. (2006) Using Newsletters to Create Home-School Connections, Reading Teacher, 60(2), 186–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/RT.60.2.8 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Jeynes, W.H. (2005) A Meta-analysis of the Relation of Parental Involvement to Urban Elementary School Student Academic Achievement, Urban Education, 40(3), 237–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085905274540 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Kagan, S.L. & Rigby, E. (2003) Policy Matters: setting and measuring benchmarks for state policies: improving the readiness of children for school. Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Social Policy. Google Scholar | |
| Lareau, A. (1989) Home Advantage: social class and parental intervention in elementary education. London: Falmer Press. Google Scholar | |
| Lareau, A. (2003) Unequal Childhoods: class, race and family life. Berkeley: University of California Press. Google Scholar | |
| Lareau, A. & Horvat, E.M. (1999) Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion: Race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships, Sociology of Education, 72, 37–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2673185 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Lareau, A. & Weininger, E.B. (2003) Cultural Capital in Educational Research: A critical assessment, Theory and Society, 32(5), 567–606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:RYSO.0000004951.04408.b0 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2003) The Essential Conversation: what parents and teachers can learn from each other. New York: Random House. Google Scholar | |
| Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2004) Building Bridges from School to Home, Instructor, 114(1), 24–28. Google Scholar | |
| Lee, J.S. & Bowen, N. (2006) Parent Involvement, Cultural Capital, and the Achievement Gap among Elementary School Children, American Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 193–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312043002193 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Levine-Rasky, C. (2009) Dynamics of Parent Involvement at a Multicultural School, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(3), 331–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425690902812604 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Mapp, K.L. (2003) Having Their Say: Parents describe why and how they are engaged in their children's learning, School Community Journal, 13(1), 35–64. Google Scholar | |
| McCarthey, S.J. (2000) Home-School Connections: A review of the literature, Journal of Educational Research, 93(3), 145–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220670009598703 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| McWayne, C., Hampton, V., Fantuzzo, J., Cohen, H. & Sekino, Y. (2004) A Multivariate Examination of Parent Involvement and the Social and Academic Competencies of Urban Kindergarten Children, Psychology in the Schools, 41(3), 363–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pits.10163 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Parker, F.L., Boak, A., Griffin, K., Ripple, C. & Peay, L. (1999) Parent-Child Relationship, Home Learning Environment, and School Readiness, School Psychology Review, 28(3), 413–425. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Pianta, R.C. (2007) Early Education in Transitions, in Pianta, R.C., Cox, M.J. & Snow, K. (Eds) School Readiness and the Transition to Kindergarten in the Era of Accountability, pp. 3–11. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publications. Google Scholar | |
| Pianta, R. & LaParo, K. (2003) Improving Early School Success, Educational Leadership, 60(7), 24–29. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Rollock, N. (2007) Why Black Girls don't Matter: Exploring how race and gender shape academic success in an inner city school, Support for Learning, 22(4), 197–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–9604.2007.00471.x Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: grounded theory procedure and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | |
| Swartz, D. (1997) Culture and Power: the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | |
| Taylor, L., Clayton, J. & Rowley, S. (2004) Academic Socialization: Understanding parental influences on children's school-related development in the early years, Review of General Psychology, 8(3), 163–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1089–2680.8.3.163 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Trainor, A.A. (2008) Using Cultural and Social Capital to Improve Postsecondary Outcomes and Expand Transition Models for Youth with Disabilities, Journal of Special Education, 42(3), 148–162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022466907313346 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| US Census Bureau (2012) State and County Facts. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/55/55025.html Google Scholar | |
| Weiss, H.B., Mayer, E., Kreider, H. (2003) Making it Work: Low-income working mothers' involvement in their children's education, American Educational Research Journal, 40(4), 879–901. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312040004879 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Wildenger, L.K. & McIntyre, L.L. (2011) Family Concerns and Involvement During Kindergarten Transition, Journal of Child and Family Studies, 20(4), 387–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10826–010–9403–6 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
