Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the experiences of Romany mothers from the pedagogical partnership with day care professionals.
The study was conducted using a qualitative research approach. The research data was collected by semi-structured theme-interviews with two main themes: home and day-care centre cooperation and the practical implementation of pedagogical partnership. Six Romany mothers aged 24 to 40 were interviewed for the study. Four of the interviews were conducted during a period of practical training at drop-in centre Kaalo, a low-threshold unit implementing and developing new models of social work suited to the needs of the Romany population in the Helsinki area. Three of the mothers interviewed were students of Helsinki Deaconess Institute. Furthermore, the data was organized into themes and thereafter analysed.
The results showed that in general the pedagogical partnership of Romany mothers with day care professionals seemed to work well and Romany mothers felt they were treated as equal partners in the relationship. Most of the interviewees felt they did not need the help of early childhood education professionals in order to develop the relationship with their children. However, there were some issues in which improvement was wished: the length of day care in cases when one of the parents was at home, taking into account the cultural demands on personal hygiene, taking into account the difference in language development and social skills of Romany children. Also the cultural custom of an obli-gation to avoid family members one’s family has harmed and its possible effect on a Romany child was mentioned.
As a result of the study, suggestions for developing the multicultural pedagogical part-nership at day-care centres concerning Finnish Romany culture were presented. The study concluded that pedagogical partnership of day-care professionals with Romany mothers is generally functioning well. However there seems to be room for improvement by educating day-care professionals concerning Romany culture.
The study was conducted using a qualitative research approach. The research data was collected by semi-structured theme-interviews with two main themes: home and day-care centre cooperation and the practical implementation of pedagogical partnership. Six Romany mothers aged 24 to 40 were interviewed for the study. Four of the interviews were conducted during a period of practical training at drop-in centre Kaalo, a low-threshold unit implementing and developing new models of social work suited to the needs of the Romany population in the Helsinki area. Three of the mothers interviewed were students of Helsinki Deaconess Institute. Furthermore, the data was organized into themes and thereafter analysed.
The results showed that in general the pedagogical partnership of Romany mothers with day care professionals seemed to work well and Romany mothers felt they were treated as equal partners in the relationship. Most of the interviewees felt they did not need the help of early childhood education professionals in order to develop the relationship with their children. However, there were some issues in which improvement was wished: the length of day care in cases when one of the parents was at home, taking into account the cultural demands on personal hygiene, taking into account the difference in language development and social skills of Romany children. Also the cultural custom of an obli-gation to avoid family members one’s family has harmed and its possible effect on a Romany child was mentioned.
As a result of the study, suggestions for developing the multicultural pedagogical part-nership at day-care centres concerning Finnish Romany culture were presented. The study concluded that pedagogical partnership of day-care professionals with Romany mothers is generally functioning well. However there seems to be room for improvement by educating day-care professionals concerning Romany culture.
| Translated title of the contribution | Kaaje and Kaale Together for the Best of the Child: Pedagogical partnership with day care professionals: Experiences of Romany mothers |
|---|---|
| Original language | Finnish |
| Publisher | |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
| MoE publication type | G1 Polytechnic thesis, Bachelor's thesis |
Fields of Science
- 5145 Social work
- day-care
- pedagogical partnership
- Romany culture