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An even better start? Parent conceptions of the preparatory year in a non-government school in Queensland

Lyndal O'Gorman   

The universal introduction of a full-time Preparatory Year in government and non-government schools in Queensland stands to have a significant impact on the experience of schooling for children and parents. During a time of significant reform to early childhood provision it is imperative that parents of young children are given the opportunity to express their views about the program in which their children participate. This seminar reports the outcomes of a study of parents of children in a Preparatory Year program in a non-government school in outer urban Queensland. The research used a phenomenographic approach to examine the qualitatively different ways in which a group of 26 parents viewed the Preparatory Year program. Analysis revealed that the range of parent views, or conceptions, of the Preparatory Year demonstrated varying emphasis on parent needs, child needs and preparation for future success in school and beyond.

Transcript

Interviewer: I’d like to welcome Lyndal O’Gorman, welcome Lyndal

Lyndal O’Gorman: Thank you

Interviewer: Lyndal can you please share with us what your Research is about?

Lyndal O’Gorman: Okay my research involves an investigation of parent’s views or conceptions of the Preparatory year in a non Government school in Queensland.  As many people would be aware the Prep year is a major reform to Early Childhood Education in Queensland and this year 2007 represents the first year that a Prep year program will be available in all schools around the State.  Just to provide a bit of background, many non Government schools in Queensland have had a Prep year for some time and for my research I chose a school that had been offering a Prep year for around about 10 years and it was a full time Prep year.  Given that Prep year programs have become increasingly popular in non Government schools, I thought it would be a good thing to talk to a group of parents from a non Government school about their expectations or their views of the Prep year in their school.

Interviewer: And what were the key findings from your Research?

Lyndal O’Gorman: Okay I found that the parents that I interviewed and I interviewed 26 parents from one school, my Research indicated that there were 5 different ways that they viewed or that they conceived of the Prep year at their school.  The first way of viewing the Prep year is in relation to the current needs of the parents so as it was a full time program, a number of parents indicated that it met their needs because of the hours fitting in with their working cycle.  They also talked about the cost of the program in that it was affordable and that it compared favourably with sending their children to child care and they talked about the location of the school as being close to home so in those ways the program met the needs of the parents.  The second way that they viewed the Prep year was that it met the current needs of the child so instead of focusing on themselves, they were talking about their children’s needs so when they spoke about that, they talked about the school like features of the program, so they talked about their children being ready for a more formal program involving things like homework and work sheets and specialist lessons and a reasonably structured time table.  But they also talked about informal things, informal aspects of the program meeting the current needs of the child so they talked about the fact that it was still a play based program and the program wasn’t too demanding on the children.  They also mentioned the focus on social and emotional development among other things as meeting the current needs of the child.   The third way of viewing the program involved preparation for year 1 so when they’re thinking about the program in this conception, they’re looking towards the future but they’re only looking as far as the next year and this was a very strong conception, most of the parents mentioned this which is natural given that it’s a preparatory year program so they talked about again the school like features, so they talked about the homework and work sheets and take home readers and discipline and rules among other things but all in relation to preparing children for next year so these parents felt that by introducing these more formal structured aspects school like aspects of the program in the Prep year, that when their children got to year 1, they’d be well prepared for their first year of compulsory schooling.   Fourthly the parents understood the Prep year in relation to it providing an advantage in primary school.  Now this is an interesting conception and only one or two parents mentioned this but they felt that the school that they had chosen for their children and particularly the Prep year program enabled their child to have an academic head start by the early introduction of literacy and numeracy learning, increased confidence and interestingly the non compulsory nature of the program so when they were talking about these things, they were talking about their children having an advantage over children who were attending a state school.  The final conception or way of understanding the Prep year involves the parents looking towards the program preparing their child for long term success so they’re looking further into the future beyond school and they felt the program prepared their child for a greater likelihood of success after school and getting into University, getting a job and that sort of thing.  When I was analysing the data, it became obvious that there were some tensions when the parents were talking about either their own needs against their child’s needs, they weren’t always keen to acknowledge that they needed a program that met their own needs and some parents seemed to be expressing a little bit of guilt about that, they preferred to talk about the program meeting their child’s needs than their own and there’s also a clear tension between whether the Prep year ought to meet the current needs of the child or prepare for the future.  Some parents were very aware that the program was focused in their view on the early acquisition of academic skills and they weren’t entirely sure whether it ought to be like that, there was that tension between preparation for the future and also meeting the current needs of the child.  Most people in the sample were very happy to acknowledge that the program did both in a sense they had their cake and they ate it too, you know they had a program that they felt matched with where their child was at but it also prepared them for the future as well.

Interviewer: And what are the implications of your findings?

Lyndal O’Gorman: It’s very timely this Research and these interviews I have to add were conducted in 2003 so it was a couple of years ago, the introduction of the Prep year was still in the future then but it was certainly on the agenda and people were aware that it was coming in.  These people were very mindful of the fact that the program that their children were experiencing involved a focus on literacy and numeracy and they valued the program for it’s structured and formal approach in their view on the whole and this is generalising across the group but I think in terms of implications, we need to be mindful about the new Early Years Curriculum which is being introduced along with the Prep year this year, emphasises not so much a formal and structured approach to academic learning but more child negotiated and initiated activities, active learning, play and real life experiences indoors and out doors so the curriculum that is being promoted and used in the Prep year this year may not match what these parents were expecting for their children in the Prep year in 2003.  In terms of implications, we need to be mindful that parents in any classroom in the State may have variable views about what the Prep program ought to be doing, I believe that given the tensions that emerged in my study, there will be some parents who want a formal and structured early start to academic learning while others may want a more play based informal approach to the program.  In any classroom you may have parents who have those variations in views, one of the implications is that we need to be very open with our communication with parents, we need to be very mindful that parents expect different things from Early Childhood programs and certainly the literature backs that up but that we need to particularly at the moment maintain very open communication with parents so that we can understand where they’re coming from but also so that they can understand where we are coming from and I think over the next few years and perhaps longer that those who believe in a play based child initiated early childhood program in the Prep year will need to be advocates for that sort of approach because there maybe people who would rather it was more formal than what the early years curriculum is promoting.   The other thing is that we can’t make assumptions about parent views, I mean you know within this one group of people that I interviewed there was variation.

IInterviewer: Thank you very much for you time Lyndal

Lyndal O’Gorman: It’s been a pleasure.