Abstract
In the past decade, significant and measurable progress in Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been accomplished in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), but it continues to be behind the average development level of the world. Given this evidence, this case study on parental involvement in ECD attempts to examine the extent of parental involvement in young children’s development and learning in Vientiane Province of Lao PDR. With reference to Epstein’s typology model of parental involvement, this study employed an integrated qualitative approach with a parental involvement questionnaire and educator-centered interviews to reveal the extent of parents’ home-based and school-based involvement activities in ECD by examining six involvement predictors of “parenting”, “communicating”, “volunteering”, “decision-making”, “learning at home” and “collaborating”. In addition, the educators’ perceptions and provisions for parental involvement in ECD presented a well-rounded description of teachers’ creative and critical views as related to parental involvement in children’s development and learning. Findings of this study suggest that although Lao parents could get involved in their children’s development and learning moderately, they did not fully understand the essential aspects of parental involvement and its bearing on home-school-community relations. The parents and educators were less aware of the benefits of comprehensive parental involvement beyond activities such as maintaining schools and attending the periodical parent meetings. Supporting young children's early development and learning requires practitioners to form partnerships with parents. Therefore, creating and maintaining positive
Author Information
Xiaodong Meng, Kobe University, Japan
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