Engaging families through observation and reflection: a collaborative approach to making learning visible

Early childhood education is based on the assertion that young children are better prepared for school and life when educators and parents work together on their behalf. Family engagement is a central force in the education of young children, yet research suggests that parents and teachers often do not collaborate, and this can have an adverse impact on young children’s learning outcomes. This brief explores a new observation approach, referred to as Journey of Discoveries, to examine its influence on family engagement and its potential use as a collaborative tool for educators and parents to gauge children’s learning and development. Journey of Discoveries was tested with volunteer families and teachers in three select Early Head Start programs in California in 2014–2015. Responses from participants illustrated seven themes or potential pathways emerging from the approach that support family engagement, including: (a) teachers’ and parents’ celebration of children’s learning, (b) emotional responses to children’s learning, (c) importance of sharing learning as stories, (d) process of reflection, (e) holistic viewing of children’s learning, (f) the honoring of diverse voices, and (g) parents’ roles as leaders. The practical and policy implications of the Journey of Discoveries approach are also discussed.     

Custodial Citizenship in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding

In contemporary processes of citizenship, parents and other caregivers often must make claims to the state on behalf of children with disabilities. In this article, we draw from data on the Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP), which were a series of hearings in 2007 and 2008 in which parents of children with autism attempted to receive compensation from a federal program for vaccine injury. During these hearings, parents and their attorneys obfuscated the children's subjectivity and instead showcased the children's physical suffering in order to claim that their children had suffered a legitimate injury from vaccines that warranted compensation. We develop the concept of custodial citizenship to account for the process by which a legible rights‐bearing subject appropriates the bodily suffering of the injured party in order to gain citizenship rights on behalf of that individual. In doing so, we trace the slippages of harm that occur in the lived experience of disability among family members and caregivers, in contrast to the individualizing rights‐granting framework of the court system.     

There’s no such thing as a free lunch: evidence of altruism and agency from household expenditure responses to child nutrition programs

Transfers for particular client groups such as children are often in-kind rather than cash. However, this may, at least partially, crowd out private expenditures on the goods in question because they reduce the incentive for other individuals, like parents, to make altruistic transfers. They are often made to one household member on behalf of another so there may also be agency concerns. This paper uses three nutrition programs for children in UK households to cast light on altruism and agency effects.     

Exploring the Domestic Homes of Sikhs in Finland as a “Cosmos of Senses”

The domestic home plays an important role in the process of socialization. In the context of migration, home becomes even more meaningful as a site for socialization, since it provides—next to the Internet, cultural events and places of religious worship—one of the few sites where young children can learn about their parent’s cultural and religious traditions in their new homelands. Grounded in data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork, this article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the domestic space of home is involved in the process through which young Sikhs who are growing up in Finland are made familiar with their parents’ religion. To reach this objective, I will examine home as a “cosmos of senses” that has been created by its inhabitants and the practices they perform in the course of everyday life. Applying the ethnographic lens in the study of the domestic home of Sikhs will also help us to gain a more profound understanding of Sikhism as a lived religion, as the findings presented in this article show.     

“I'm Not Going to Leave Her High and Dry”: Young Adult Support to Parents during the Transition to Adulthood

The transition to adulthood is a critical time in the life course, and the role of parental support during the transition has been one of the most prominent discussions in this literature. Yet while research has focused attention on the support passed from parents to young adult children during the transition, it has generally ignored the support that young adults may provide their parents. Utilizing qualitative interviews, this article explores the types of support one group of young adult children provide to their families during this time in the life course. It then examines how this assistance to parents intersects with young adults' ability to meet their own social and human capital goals.     

Parent Involvement Practices in Child Protection: A Matter of Know-How and Attitude

Modern view of child protection services implies that to help young people, simply intervening on their behalf is not sufficient. It suggests that involving parents in the assistance process is essential in order to ensure that they are most likely to play their role as parents to their children in the fullest possible way. Although several articles have dealt with the issue of parent involvement, very few have attempted to document the practices used by practitioners to encourage such involvement. This article presents the findings of a study on child protection practices for involving parents in a child protection context. It is exploratory in nature, and uses a qualitative methodology. The study population is made up of 38 child protection service workers. An analysis of the practitioners’ discourse reveals that the behaviour and attitudes used by them to encourage parent involvement are very diverse. There also appear to be key moments in securing their involvement, that is, making contact, setting objectives and means of action, and applying the case plan. In addition to corroborating earlier studies on the issue of parent involvement, our findings indicate that the majority of the caseworkers interviewed practice an approach that aims to empower clients.Funding of this project was provided by le Fonds Richelieu de recherche sur l’enfance.Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques, Geneviève Lessard, and André Beaudoin are affiliated with School of Social Work, Laval University, Quebec, Canada. Sylvie Drapeau is affiliated with Department of Foundations and Practices in Education, Laval University, Quebec, Canada.     

'I Value What You have to Say'. Seeking the Perspective of Children with a Disability, Not Just their Parents

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges the right for children to express opinions about issues affecting them and the right to have these views heard (Davis, 1998). There has been an increase in the number of international studies including children as informants in research, but there is noticeably less published research including children as informants in Australia if they have a disability. Rather, there has been a reliance on parents/carers for insight into their child's experiences. In this article we present the results of a qualitative pilot study where we interviewed parents and their children who have cerebral palsy about their perceptions and experiences of communication in the medical consultation. We found that the views of children and parents were different, further reiterating the need to seek the perceptions of children as well as their parents.     

‘Similar but Different’ Conversations: Working with Denial in Cases of Severe Child Abuse

This article describes a particular aspect of a service called ‘Resolutions’ that has been developed at the NSPCC Child and Family Centre in Bristol, England. The Resolutions service works with families where parents and/or carers are disputing responsibility for serious abuse of their children, but where child protection agencies deem at least one of them culpable on a balance of probabilities. The service's general approach to developing partnerships with families is briefly considered, but the article concentrates on a particular approach. This is where parents and/or carers who are disputing abuse of their children roleplay a ‘similar but different’ family. This enables key issues in relation to child abuse to be discussed by the parents and/or carers. It also facilitates the gaining of greater understanding that helps them ensure the future safety of their own and other children.     

All Work and no Play? Understanding the Needs of Children with Caring Responsibilities

This article draws on research with children who provide care for parents with serious mental health problems and signals ongoing research that uses photographic participation methods with these groups of vulnerable children. The intention of this article is to highlight the need to move away from popular and simplistic representations of children with caring responsibilities (young carers) as victims of their parents’ illnesses, as ‘little angels’ whose caring work is condoned through rewards or as (exploited) informal domestic workers whose childhoods are inevitably compromised by the caring activity they undertake. Recommendations are made for generating deeper understanding about the lives and needs of children who are affected by parental impairment that is congruent with the thrust of current UK policy, Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act.     

The ‘Go‐Between’: Low‐Income Children Negotiating Relationships of Money and Care with Their Separated Parents

The UK is moving from a centralised administrative child support system to one of private ordering where the state will only intervene under limited circumstances. This requires parents to agree and set up suitable, sustainable arrangements. This has particular implications for children, although the child perspective is often overlooked. This article situates children as active social agents exploring their interactions and negotiations with their separated‐parents with regard to money, time and parenting. It argues that policies that do not take into account the agentic child's experiences and perspectives may fail to address the impact of policy on children's lives.     

“Parent Advocacy” as an Ideological Code: LGBTQ Parents Engage with Disability Services

What does the work that LGBTQ parents do to find resources for their disabled children reveal about the social organization of services? This article presents findings from an institutional ethnography study based on interviews with 15 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) parents and six key community informants in Toronto, Canada. The analysis focused on the work parents did to engage with disability service systems on behalf of their children, and the ways in which families’ social privilege and/or marginalization affected their experiences. Particular attention was paid to the ways in which “parent advocacy” was taken up, responded to, and critiqued in these interviews. “Parent advocacy” was found to operate as what Dorothy Smith has called an “ideological code” (Smith 1999), offloading systemic responsibilities onto parents, shielding inequities, and promoting individualized competition between service users. This study suggests that the systemic organization that makes “parent advocacy” necessary also renders parents’ relative privilege or marginality central to what their children receive.     

Intergenerational negotiations on (hetero)sexuality and romantic relationships – views of young people and parents in multi-ethnic contexts

This article focuses on intergenerational negotiations on young people’s (13–19 years) sexuality and romantic relationships in families where one or both of the parents have migrated to Finland. By utilising the theoretical framework of intersectionality and negotiability of family relationships, we seek to diversify the often problem-oriented and culture-related examinations of ethnic minority families and young people’s position in them. Methodologically, we draw on interview data relating to both young people and parents. In addition to the vast heterogeneity in practices and ideals, the analysis shows that while conflicts and miscommunication between generations do occur, the intergenerational negotiations for the most part are described as consensual and based on trust. Young people are allotted considerable agency by their parents, and also demonstrate a high degree of agency, whether they are complying with their parents’ views or questioning them. Their negotiations also reflect and are conditioned by their position in the hierarchies of Finnish society.     

Risk and parenting assessments in child welfare court proceedings – a psychodynamic approach

This article discusses a court directed parenting and risk assessment of a mother who has a chronic history of trauma and abuse. It addresses the complex unconscious dynamics that need to be managed by social workers when working with parents in court proceedings regarding their children. Often such parents present with their own complex histories of trauma and abuse and despite their conscious intentions to do so this has contributed to their inability to provide adequate care for their own children. An understanding of the powerful unconscious processes in operation more effectively gauges the risk factors that such parents present. However, such cases and enactments on behalf of parents can be bewildering to social work practioners. This may potentially lead to the social worker feeling persecuted during the process, resulting in impulsive, unprocessed and poor decision-making despite their best conscious intentions. To mitigate these challenges there is discussion of the support needs required for social workers, who engage with such complex unconscious dynamics.     

A cross-national and comparative classification of in-country awareness and policy responses to ‘young carers’

The reality for many families where there is chronic illness, mental health problems, disability, alcohol or substance misuse is that children under the age of 18 are involved in caring. Many of these children – known as ‘young carers’ – will be providing regular and significant care, either episodically or over many years, often ‘hidden’ to health, social care and other welfare professionals and services. These children have most often been invisible in social policy and professional practice. What are the reasons why some countries recognize young carers as a priority for social policy while others (most) do not? What are the key factors that influence a country’s awareness and responses to these children? This article provides an original classification and analysis of country-level responses to young carers, drawing on published research, grey literature, policy documents and the authors’ extensive engagement in policy and practice networks for young carers and their families in a wide range of countries. The analysis identifies two of the key factors that influence the extent and nature of these policy responses, focusing on the importance of a reliable in-country research base and the contribution of influential national NGOs and their networks.     

The role of social networks in the care of young children

SUMMARY. From birth, children develop, play and work within extensive social networks; yet little systematic research has been carried out to examine these relationships. This article summarises findings about the network relationships of young children from a study undertaken to explore the diverse ways in which their parents made childcare and babysitting arrangements. The different experiences of the children were found to be closely linked to parental beliefs and values, as well as the nature of the local neighbourhoods and network patterns. They were also associated with varied evolutionary sequences in the social relationships of both adults and children     

A Child‐inclusive Family Intervention in a Community Adult Mental Health Service

In this paper we describe an intervention that focuses on the needs of children in families where a parent has a mental illness and attends a community adult mental health setting. After a brief outline of the literature, we present a family approach that includes children and young people, their parents and grandparents. Case studies then illustrate the work as a ‘best practice’ for parents who are clients in community adult mental health services.     

Parenting is risky business: parental risk attitudes in small stakes decisions on behalf of their children

Parents often face risk when making decisions on behalf of their children, since outcomes may affect child development. We perform an incentive-compatible field experiment using the Holt and Laury (Am Econ Rev 92(5):1644–1655, 2002) design to elicit parental risk preferences in a stewardship decision framework. Multivariate analysis using different estimation techniques suggests that parents are significantly more risk-averse when deciding for their child than for themselves. Higher risk aversion is linked to characteristics of parents, not of children. Mood and gender of the deciding parent play a key role. If these results also hold for larger stakes, insights from this study could help to improve decision environments for parents to limit inequality between children due to diverging parental risk preferences.     

Time for work,commuting, and parenting? Commuting parents' involvement with their children

For most Australian parents, there is continuing tension between work and family commitments. This tension is exacerbated by the need not only to have sufficient time available to children in the family but also for that time to be characterized by nurturance and guidance. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored how 21 part-time or full-time working parents, who also commute 10–15 hours a week to work, manage both the quantity and quality of their time with their young children (0–5 years). The study revealed the difficult conditions of commuting and the importance of social support to parents' well-being, as well as a significant pattern of parent–child interaction which we have described as ‘attentive parenting.’ Parents felt these activities contributed to the parent–child bond and their children's well-being in spite of an acknowledged lack of interactive time.     

Independence Giving or Autonomy Taking? Childhood Predictors of Decision‐Sharing Patterns Between Young Adolescents and Parents

This article reports on a study of whether young adolescents make decisions autonomously, share decisions with their parents, or have decisions made for them by parents. Using a sample of 2,632 12‐ and 13‐year‐olds from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child Survey we examine how childhood behavior and competence influence decision patterns in young adolescence. Individual models are used to test whether traits predict decision patterns, and sibling fixed‐effects models allow us to estim\ate effects of child characteristics net of stable family contributions. In both individual and sibling fixed‐effects models, children with higher verbal ability share more decision making with parents. Children with greater mathematical aptitude and children who are impulsive are more likely to make decisions without consulting parents. The impulsivity effect is stronger in families with fewer resources. These results suggest that children directly and indirectly influence household decision‐sharing patterns.     

Between Two Cultures? Muslim Children in a Western Liberal Society

SUMMARY: The experiences of Muslim children in Britain highlight some, of the complexities in the nation of cultural development. Their main problem is often described in terms of being trapped between the traditional Islamic values of their parents and the liberal and often secular values of the school. Multicultural education has not been able to resolve this problem fully, but as young Muslims themselves seek far creative ways of combining full British citizenship with their own distinctive religious commitments, there are signs that a new British Muslim cultural identity is gradually emerging.