Support for Families in Early Childhood Centres

This paper, 'Support for Families in Early Childhood Centres: What Difference Does it Make to Children's Learning and Development?', describes Citizens Preschool and Nursery's first 18 months as a Centre of Innovation (COI). A paper by Bobbie Parata, Kylie Preedy, Jacqui King, Kirsty Thomson, Tinaka Kilgour, and Linda Thompson (teacher researchers), and Judith Duncan and Michael Gaffney (research associates).

History and background
Citizens Preschool and Nursery is an early childhood centre situated in South Dunedin. It was one of the first early childhood centres in New Zealand, established in 1930 by the Dunedin City Council with the aim of enabling women who worked in manual labour to have access to quality care for their children. In 1954, it was made part of the Dunedin Methodist Mission, now known as Methodist Connect.

Methodist Connect is the umbrella organisation governing the centre. There is a Child Wise manager¹ who is responsible for the centre as well as the other children's services within Methodist Connect. Based at the centre there is also a centre supervisor and senior teacher who are responsible for both the preschool and the nursery. The preschool and the nursery are open Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 5.30pm, and are licensed for a maximum of 36 children at the preschool, and 15 under two-year-olds at the nursery.

The teacher ratios are 1:8 in the preschool and 1:4 in the nursery. The teaching team consists of 11 full-time teachers - six in the nursery and five in the preschool -and one part-time teacher to provide COI release in the nursery, one part-time teacher in the preschool, and regular relieving staff.

In addition, the centre offers the services of a family/whānau worker, who is dedicated to helping and advising parents with the various kinds of assistance for which they may be eligible. The family/whānau worker offers:

• Advocacy
• Links with community and government agencies
• Support in completing WINZ forms
• Information on family assistance
• Assistance with information about schools and transitioning
• Budget advice
• Behaviour management strategies
• Other services for families who may need assistance.

The family/whānau worker position was established in 2004 after the head teacher at the preschool at the time highlighted a number of gaps in social service agency links with our centre. She had been involved in a project in the South Dunedin community, which revealed that there were many families in the area who were actively seeking information about support from their early childhood service, including Citizens. A family/whānau worker was the suggested solution to "plug the gap". S/he would support families and assist in obtaining and sharing information relevant to family needs. Some could be shared with peers in South Dunedin. Further to this, the worker would take the social service workload off teaching staff to allow them more time to focus on children's learning.

It was this collaborative arrangement to better support families that was of interest for research and development. In December 2004, Citizens Preschool and Nursery received confirmation that our application to become a COI had been accepted, making us the second centre from the South Island to participate in the programme.

Initial research
The initial intention for our COI research was for teachers to observe and document how forms of support for families would translate into positive outcomes for learning through improved teaching practice in the centre. The theory used to inform the project was the ecological model, where it suggests that the micro systems or immediate settings of the child (his or her family home and nurseries), and the relationships between them, provide the key contexts for human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). In reality, our research has had an emphasis on support for families.

Qualitative research methods have been used to capture rich and in-depth understandings from the perspective of the family participants, teachers, the family/whānau worker, and staff in social service agencies. Qualitative research looks for meaning from the perspective of the participants in the research, through the use of diverse data collection techniques that contribute valid data (Patton, 1990; Janesick, 2000). In our case, this includes the perspectives and experiences of the groups listed above, as well as some information about the children.

We have been using multiple observers, methods and data sources to overcome the tendency toward bias that comes with single methods, single observers and single-theory studies (Denzin, 1970, cited in Patton, 1990, p. 464). The qualitative methods contribute to the research stages of the cycles. Bronfenbrenner and related theories have informed our analyses and thinking about actions that follow. All the teachers in the nursery have been active researchers, with support and guidance from the two research associates from the Children's Issues Centre, University of Otago.

Building on the quality review method of planning, doing, studying and acting (Ministry of Education, 1999), each cycle has begun by identifying a topic for investigation and/or a research question linking a current issue or activity in the centre. The plan was that information would be gathered through:

• Baseline records of ongoing contact and interactions with families
• Case studies of particular families
• Records of support asked for, offered and provided
• Digital photos and/or video extracts of the children within the programme
• Brief interviews or questionnaires/surveys with family members
• Records of interactions with other agencies, accessing information, and so on

The research question and development of transition stories
The research question in the contract with the Ministry of Education was:

What difference does support for families make to children's learning and development in early childhood centres?

Both we and the Ministry had an interest in the family/whānau worker and the effects of her support.

Initially, the COI team engaged in lengthy discussions around where to begin, which led us to identify transition. It was unanimously agreed we should begin at the beginning for the children, as a large number of infants and toddlers were transitioning into the nursery at the time. We began writing stories around their transition into the centre. We gathered information on the processes, relationships, support asked for by the family, support offered by the teachers and support offered by the family/whānau worker. These are the questions we used to gather our first cycle data:

• When a child first begins at the nursery what are the important things that you think about? And why?
• Once the child has been at the nursery for a day or two, what are the things that you think about, notice, do most and why?
• Once the child is settled, what are the things that you think about, notice and do that are different from when they first started? Why?
• How do you know that what you are doing during this transition works positively for children, parents and all staff in the team?
• What role would you like the family/whānau worker to play in the nursery team?
• Thinking about your relationships with nursery families, what is the teacher's role in developing and keeping these relationships positive?
• What is the family/whānau worker role in developing and maintaining positive family and staff relationships?
• Identify the role(s) the family/whānau worker plays in the teachers' settling of children in the nursery.
• What role would you like the family/whānau worker to play if different from your description above?

As we were just developing as teacher-researchers, the initial stories were not sufficiently in depth for research. They read more like observations on the children settling, without looking at the parents and the child as a whole and the support that we were providing for the families and whānau. But over time, as more transition stories were written, they improved and we included more information relevant to the research topic. As well, we inserted photos to convey meaning. The tool that helped us include more relevant data was an adaptation of the reflective questions from a New Zealand publication, On Reflection: Reflective Practice for Early Childhood Educators, (O'Connor and Diggins, 2002, see p. 52).

Describing an episode or event:

• What was the flow of events?
• What were the important elements of the event?
• What preceded and followed the event?
• Who was doing what and why?

Decision making:

• What decisions were made?
• What were the main ideas behind the decision? The ones accepted and the ones rejected?
• What were the possible actions that could have been taken? What was/were the outcome/s of the decision?
• What were the problems or benefits identified?
• What were the points of conflict/disagreement? Agreement?

Reflecting on my own involvement:

• What did I do to contribute to this situation?
• What was my role?
• What ideas influenced my actions/decisions?
• What did I think was best practice? Best for the child? And why?
• What did I feel about what I did and why?

Outcomes:

• Evaluating outcomes: what works, what doesn't and why?
• What different perspectives on the outcomes do we bring? Social work versus education?
• How does this work?

Transition stories
Each new family has a centre orientation visit where they meet staff and find out about the centre, which helps to familiarise them with the centre, teachers and nursery routines. Families are introduced to or told about the role of the family/whānau worker who can help with forms and subsidies if needed. The families are also encouraged to spend time at the centre during their child's transition (also known as the "settling in period"). The child and family familiarise themselves with the new environment, and start to know more about the teachers. Parents are made aware that they are welcome to spend time with their child during session times.

These orientation visits and the settling in periods were written about by the teachers in "transition stories" for the COI research.

During a weekend COI session, the wider COI team analysed the transition stories, where we were able to identify the areas of support and bring out other areas of support that were not shown in the recorded data. Through our analysis we found that the stories highlighted different sorts of support. The coding showed that the main theme incorporated in all the stories was reassurance.

Reassurance was given, for example, through phoning parents to inform them that their child had stopped crying, and showing pictures and videos to parents at pick up time. Reassurance was also given during regular conversations with parents informing them about their child's daily experiences.

Parents appreciated teachers asking how they were feeling. This interest acknowledged that parents feel the separation too, and it was reassuring for them that the teachers were aware of their feelings.

When looking at the support we were providing for children and parents in the transition period we started to reflect on the enrolment process and what role it has in transition. That triggered some changes (see below).

The analysis of the transition stories also showed that frequent references were made by teachers to "All about Me" information (usually called the "Me form"). We saw that the child felt supported when we acted on information we had learned about the child, such as his or her routines. A revision of the form is discussed later in this paper.

The availability of teachers was identified during our analyses as a form of support. By ensuring there was always someone available for open dialogue, and one of us was with the new child when the parent left and the child was being comforted, we gave parents better support at this time of intense emotion. Through our taking an interest in the parent/caregiver's feelings, the parent felt more comfortable about approaching and talking with us. We focused on this area in a later cycle of research reported in this article.

An immediate change was made to the roster to ensure continuity of permanent teachers at opening and closing times. If relief staff were required, they were allocated to the middle of the day where possible.

To gain a greater insight into how the transition process was experienced by families, the family/whānau worker interviewed individual families. The results of this part of our research will be presented elsewhere.

Transition support activities
During and following the data collection on transitions, and our reflection on the importance of reciprocal relationships, some procedures were reviewed and several activities were initiated in the nursery for the children, parents and teachers to get to know each other better:

• use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
• revised enrolment procedures
• a revised "Me" form.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
New technology equipment (a computer and digital camera) was purchased in order to strengthen the family's connections with their children at the centre. Slide shows of the day's events are now shown to give family members the opportunity to see their children at play, and photos are used to reassure parents that their child has settled and is happy in the nursery. Both sets of images also serve to highlight some of the learning activities the children participate in. As a result of seeing the visual images, that reinforced the teachers' information about how their baby was settling and engaged, some parents have begun to stay longer at the nursery to see more of their child there. This allows more time for the nursery teachers and parents to converse and build relationships.

Enrolment pack and procedure
A second action involved revising our enrolment pack and procedure for enrolling new families. The material covered in the enrolment form and "Me" form was re-ordered and now have a better logic. The change in procedure is for parent and child to be involved in discussing the two forms with a teacher as they are completed (enrolment and "Me" forms). The child sees the parent and teacher engaged in a conversation about him or her, and perceives that the teacher is someone to trust. As well, through discussion as the parents complete the form, the teachers start to develop a relationship with them.

Any teacher is able to take prospective and new parents through nursery information and the enrolment process when a senior teacher is unavailable.

"Me" form
For years, the "Me" form has been part of the enrolment process for the Citizens Preschool and Nursery. An action step after reviewing the findings was to reconceptualise the form in order to learn more about the child and to give added reassurance. The language was changed to a tone intended to invite, rather than require, the sharing of information. Through encouraging parents to share their knowledge of their child's comforts, securities and routines, we wanted to show our willingness to respond to children new to the nursery as an individual with likes and dislikes. Consistency between home and centre assists children's emotional well being. The old form was mostly about facts, such as bottle feeding. The new form is more open, and asks the parents to share what they want to tell us. It has much more of a focus on the child and their likes, interests, favourite toys, and so on. Asking enables the staff to develop links between the two settings.

Parents also provide information relevant to the health and safety of children in the centre, such as children's allergies or medical conditions.

A focus on support
It was apparent from the analysis of the transition stories that there was a lot of support being provided for families. Our research attention turned next to supportive relationships. The method used to record transition stories was now adapted to record "support stories" beyond the transition period. They had a focus on relationships, and the cycle also involved some new initiatives.

The importance of relationships
Te Whāriki (1996) states the importance of relationships. This is legally reinforced in the revised statement of desirable objectives and practices (known as DOPs) (Ministry of Education, 1998) where educators are to ensure that communication with family and whānau acknowledges their "values, needs and aspirations". At the practice level, the teachers are to develop "relationships and interactions" with family and whānau "which are responsive, reciprocal, positive and encouraging" just as they do for children (DOP 1a).

Elliot (2005) describes how communication is important to the "development of a shared parent and staff approach to children's care and education" (p. 49). She refers to how communication is associated with increased parent engagement and contributions. The essence of good communication for Elliot is the opportunity to talk about those things important to each other.

Communication begins when parents initially contact Citizens Preschool and Nursery, and make a decision to begin the enrolment process. As described above, parents are asked to share personal information about their child by completing his or her "Me" form. We decided to reciprocate and share information about our own family, interests, important events and achievements to further develop our relationships with the families in the nursery, and to expand our support. We initiated several activities.

Family collages
We decided as a team in the nursery that the teachers would share something about our lives with the families, and present it in the form of a family collage for each teacher. We collected photos and words that described things that were important to our families, and to us, so that we could portray and share our lives. They were hung in the nursery for families to look at. The rationale for the family collages developed from our reflections in building on and strengthening the links and relationships between the teaching team and the families. We wanted to be more proactive in our communication. We ask parents to share something about their families with their child's teachers, so we thought we should be willing to share something of ourselves.

As stated by Elliot (2005) "Effective staff and parent communication based on mutual respect and trust encourages parents and staff to see themselves and each other as valued contributors to children's care and education and does much to allay many parents' anxieties about leaving their children" (p. 55). Our family collages have been received positively. Feedback indicated that parents were interested and thought that they were a great idea. As a result of the family collages parents have added more photos and information in their child's profiles for teachers and children to share.

Family celebration
The family celebration was decided upon by us as another way of building the relationships with families while enabling them to develop a stronger connection with the centre as a community.

With new teachers in the centre it was also a good way of building on our developing team relationships. The celebration was a great opportunity to show the many changes that had been happening in the centre, such as the changing formats for profile books and for planning, new ICT via slideshows and video footage, and of course, the family collages.

It was acknowledged that many families do not have the time to come to functions after dinner, so we decided the family celebration would be a rolling event from 3.30pm to 6.30pm. Parents/caregivers and families could then come straight from work, and still get home at a decent hour. The teachers felt that this was an opportunity not to be missed in terms of developing and building on relationships with friends, families and whānau.

Posters
After the event, posters of the celebration were assembled and displayed in the centre to encourage children and their family/whānau to make the connecting links between their family, the centre community and the wider community. By making posters of the event it showed we valued the time the families spent in the centre. They also gave the children and their families the chance to revisit the event.

Researching relationships
As we reflected on the relationships that we had with the families and whānau, we decided on another cycle of research. We asked the question: "Are all parents being greeted when they dropped their children off in the morning?" If they were all being greeted what contact were they getting from the teachers? A "hello"? Maybe sharing of information about the child? Or a personal conversation? An observation schedule was developed to differentiate between the different types of conversations teachers might have with parents. The plan was to gather simple quantitative data before and after some changes.

Table 1 gives baseline information over the period of a week, of the number of families dropping their children off in the mornings and the number of greetings between teachers and families across five categories. The last number relates to the number of families who were only greeted with a hello over the week. This was seen as insufficient interaction for maintaining a good parent/teacher relationship.

Table 1: Summary of findings - baseline

Number of Families	No Contact	Hello	Sharing Information	Personal	Only Hello
18	0	28	5	20	7

We thought the level of interactions was due to our shift roster and the staggered times that the nursery team began their day. Approval was also given for an extra person to come in during the morning; namely, our relieving family/whānau worker. The change served a dual purpose: not only did it increase the number of people available in the morning to greet families, but it was also an opportunity to introduce the new family/whānau worker to the families.

The intervention data shown in Table 2 indicates that the number of interactions between the parents and the teachers improved.

Table 2: Summary of findings - after intervention

Number of Families	No Contact	Hello	Sharing Information	Personal	Only Hello
20	0	10	12	34	1

A comparison on Tables 1 and 2 shows that the number of people only greeted with a 'hello' dropped and other two categories, 'sharing information' and 'personal' increased. At the end of the week there was only one family who was greeted with 'only hello', compared with seven in the baseline week. We wondered if more of the in depth interactions were occurring at the end of the day, so we gathered data during that time as well (see Table 3).

Table 3: Summary of findings - afternoon

Number of Families	No Contact	Hello	Sharing Information	Personal	Only Hello
17	0	6	15	22	0

The research demonstrated an improvement in the number of interactions between teachers and parents, and more high-level sharing. We also believe that prior to our data collection, there were parents dropping off their children without any contact with a staff member. However, with the mere knowledge that we were observing our practice, we believe our practice changed ahead of any formal intervention. Next steps include looking at the types of information sharing and personal sharing that is occurring. We are also curious about children's learning. Do the support stories and associated improved communication with family and whānau connect to aspects of children's learning? We have anecdotal evidence that there is improved continuity between home and centre. For example, adults in both settings supporting a child to crawl. These are potential areas for ongoing research.

There are links between Elliot's model (2005) and our observations of teachers greeting parents. Her spiral model might prove useful in working with the categories of 'sharing information' and 'personal information'. She says:

The model is based on a spiral process of initiated conversations. These conversations are, in the beginning, focused on communication exchanges about children's physiological and safety needs. As parents and teachers develop a shared relationship around the child, the exchange of information begins to change. Conversations move beyond the child's physiological needs and state of wellbeing into communications about the child's individuality and the family as a whole (p. 52).

The spiral model explains how information and knowledge of parents and teachers is built up over time. Can we identify a similar spiral?

Conclusion
When beginning our term as a COI, Citizens Preschool and Nursery had several staff changes and we had to focus on building new working relationships between management, teachers, children and their families. Over time, we have become stronger and more focused, which has been a benefit to our research.

There were several mini cycles of teacher-research occurring at the same time, which kept teachers, the family/whānau worker and management busy. We found that wherever we took the research, the importance of relationships was always there. This paper describes a few of the things associated with the action research journey that we did to strengthen relationships with families.

We moved from writing and analysing transition stories, to investigating support through "support stories" and linking them to implementing Te Whāriki and to children's learning. We continue to challenge ourselves as we develop relationships with new families and deepen relationships with existing families and whānau. To add insights into how effective and meaningful our innovations are on a deeper level we are in the process of analysing the interviews with families and whānau conducted by the family/whānau worker. From these we should gain further ideas for the continual growth of the team and the centre.

References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Elliot, R. (2005). The communication accretion spiral: A communication process for promoting and sustaining meaningful partnerships between families and early childhood service staff. Australian journal of early childhood. 30 (2), 49-58.

Janesick, V. J. (2000). The choreography of qualitative research and design: Minuets, improvisations, and crystallization. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds). Handbook of qualitative research. 2nd edition, (pp. 279-400). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (1998). Quality in action: Te Mahi Whai Hua. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (1999). The quality journey: He haerenga whai hua. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

O'Connor, A. & Diggins C. (2002). On reflection: reflective practice for early childhood educators. Lower Hutt, New Zealand: Open Mind Publishing.

Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Footnotes
1 Child Wise is the name of all of Methodist Connect's children's services, which include the preschool, nursery, and Wise-up and the former Broad Bay After-school Programme.