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Positioning in Relationships between Parents and Early Years Practitioners
Wendy Sims-Schouten, University of Portsmouth
Abstract
Early years care and education have been high on British political agendas. This includes partnership
working between early years practitioners and parents. Yet, more research is needed to examine
how child care staff engage with parents and vice versa. ‐ This study addresses the role of position
and positioning in parent-practitioner relationships, through two small-scale studies. Study 1 is a
quantitative study with two groups of early years students (N=74); study 2 is a qualitative study with
parents and early years practitioners, drawing on ‘synthesised’ discourse analysis as a
methodological framework. Although exploratory, in both studies parents are positioned as the
infant’s first and foremost educators. In addition to this, parents are positioned in terms of
deficiencies, in relation to their priorities, and background. At the same time, practitioners are
positioned as supportive, and willing to cooperate. More research is needed, with a view to
empowering both early years practitioners and parents.
Key words: positioning, parent-partnerships, engagement
Introduction
With increasing numbers of children spending at least part of the day in day care, early
years care and education have been high on British political agendas. At the same time
research has shown that the primary care system needs to be improved so as to better
support children’s transitions from home to daycare (Ebbeck and Yim, 2009; Osgood, 2009;
Spiteri and Borg Xuereb, 2011). Parent participation has moved from the psychological to
the political arena, and it has become important for early years practitioners to have a clear
understanding of how to improve effective communication with parents about supporting
children in their learning (e.g. Athey, 1991, Kennedy Reedy and Hobbins McGrath, 2010;
Whalley, 2007). This includes understanding how parents might participate. The EPPE-
project (Effective Provision of Pre-school Education), a longitudinal study of the overall
effect of different types of preschool provision on child development in England and Wales,
which took place between 1997-2003, advised the then Labour government with regard to
factors that characterize and promote young children’s learning; one factor highlighted was
parental involvement in preschool settings (Siraj-Blatchford, 2009; Sylva et al, 2007; Sylva et
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al, 2010). The latter is also emphasised by the statutory framework for the Early Years
Foundation Stage, which comprises the early years curriculum in England, suggesting that
“the EYFS seeks to provide partnership working between practitioners and with parents
and/or carers” (DfE, 2014, 5).
Research has consistently highlighed the significance of parents in young children’s lives.
Take, for example, the Plowden Report (Department for Education and Science, 1967) on
primary education, published more than forty years ago, which found that parents’ attitudes
towards their children’s schooling are more significant in influencing children’s performance
in schools, than either variations in home circumstances or in schools. These findings have
been replicated by more recent studies (e.g. Sylva et al 2010; Harris and Goodall, 2008)
reinforcing the crucial role of parents in supporting their children’s learning. Parent-
partnerships with a focus on helping practitioners to engage more effectively with families
have now become key in government policy for improving developmental outcomes for
children. The REPEY (Researching Effective Pedagogy in Early Years) study, which explored
factors linked to effective practice, suggests that:
where a special relationship in terms of shared educational aims has been developed with
parents, and pedagogic efforts are made at home good outcomes may be achieved (Siraj-
Blatchford et al, 2002, p. 100).
It follows that children benefit the most from their experience in daycare if their parents are actively
involved (Nalls et al, 2010). Working well with parents results in consistent, significant and lasting
benefits, e.g. in relation to children’s achievement, attitude and behaviour (Bastiani, 2003; Ebbeck
and Yim, 2009; Hadley, 2012). However, this is only the case when parental involvement is
reciprocal, constructive and empowering (Grady, Ale and Morris, 2012; Morrow and Malin, 2004;
Sims-Schouten and Riley, 2014). Yet, more research is needed to examine how child care staff ‐engage with parents and vice versa. In essence, this means reflecting with parents and practitioners
on their roles and relationships within this so-called parent-practitioner partnership. This study
addresses the concept of position and positioning in relationships between parents and early years
practitioners. In line with Bastiani (2003) and Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) parent involvement is
defined in terms of co-production in the learning and development of the child.
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Positioning
Positioning theory looks at the normative frames within which people live their lives, especially in
relation to the ‘rights’ and ‘duties’ that people are bound by (Harre et al, 2009). As such, positions
are more often than not part and parcel of the everyday practice of different groups of people. Harre
et al (2009, 12) argue that what you are is partly constituted by what roles you have – in
conversations, both personal and social. Generally, positioning theory is concerned with revealing
the explicit and implicit patterns of reasoning that are linked to the way that people act towards
each other and how they construct themselves and their own position within this. Positioning theory
fits within the realm of both cognitive and discursive psychology. Whilst the first encompasses a
focus on the cognitive processes that are instrumental in supporting the actions people undertake
and the meaning of these actions, the latter places the actions, and in particular the normative
constraints and opportunities within this, within an unfolding story-line (Harre et al, 2009; Haste,
2014). Positioning can be thought of as operating on the inter-personal, intra-personal, intra and
inter-group levels (Harre and Davies, 1990; Harre and Moghaddam, 2008).
Narratives are a source of positioning. The current study draws on the notion (as promoted by
Bermudez, 2012; Harre and van Langenhove, 1991; Haste 2014) that positioning is a discursive
process by which a person manipulates power relations and entitlement between self and others, in
direct dialogue or in reported speech. Here, social narratives and cultural repertoires provide the
infrastructure for positioning, as well as the rhetorical resources for counter positioning (Haste,
2014). This is relevant in relation to relationships between early years workers and parents.
Identities are constantly re-created in each new situation and an individual’s active engagement
with the social world (Martsin, 2010). Here positioning can be perceived as an unfolding narrative,
something that happens in the course of an interaction. Cottle and Alexander (2014) found that
parents tend to be positioned as either deficient or as active agents in terms of their engagement
with early years settings, thereby oversimplifying the highly complex relationships and issues to do
with class and culture. This in and of itself leads to social stigmas, where parents are positioned in
terms of their social economic status, ethnic diversity and home situation (Cottle and Alexander,
2014; Osgood 2012). At the same time there is evidence that early years practitioners are
constructed in terms of ‘lacking’ and ‘in need of transformation’ in policy discourse (Allen, 2011;
Osgood, 2009). Following Nutbrown (2012, 4), it is still the case that working in the early years is too
often seen as a low level job which involves ‘wiping noses’ and ‘playing with kids’, and it is not
necessarily regarded as a professional occupation that demands good qualifications and expertise.
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Methods of research in positioning theory are specifically designed to gain insight into the meaning
of interpersonal encounters, and bring to light the normative frames within which individuals carry
on their lives. Here, positions are treated as clusters of beliefs that are more often than not
imminent in everyday practices of groups of people (Harre at al, 2009). Harre et al (2009) describe
the act of positioning in terms of a phased procedure , with the first phase referred to as
‘prepositioning’, where the character and/or competence of the person who is being positioned is
established. This often taken for granted phase involves attributes of skills and character traits
deemed relevant to whatever positioning is going forward. Positioning and repositioning that follow
on from this, occur in the course of an interaction. The notion of positioning is further explored in
the two small-scale studies below. Study 1 is a quantitative study, which offers the background
context for study 2, which is a qualitative study.
Both studies were located in the South East of England, which is the third largest region of
England.The South East does not have very large cities like other regions, but is characterised by
several regional hubs and market towns. Diversity is a word which describes the South East, both in
terms of its people (ethnicity and social economic contexts) and landscape; study 1 and 2 are
discussed in more detail below.
Study 1
Study 1 was part of a larger study on academic and professional identities of students undertaking a
degree in early childhood care and education, and was stimulated by the increased focus on raising
the qualifications and status of early years workers in England (Nutbrown, 2012; Osgood, 2009;
Sims-Schouten and Stittrich-Lyons, 2014; Sylva et al, 2010). Data was collected through semi-
structured interviews and questionnaires. The analysis of the interview data led to specific themes
in relation to how participants positioned themselves and parents (intra-personal and inter-group
positioning), e.g. ‘confidence’, ‘willingness to engage’, ‘relationships’ ‘key roles’ and ‘home
situation’, that were used to construct the questionnaire. The questionnaire results will be the focus
of study 1 in this paper.
The questionnaire was presented to two groups of early years practitioners; all of whom had prior
and current experience of working in early years settings in the UK, and all were finishing off a HE
degree in early years. One half of the group (N=36) consisted of participants with less than two
years of experience working in early years settings, and were in the third year of their BA (Hons)
Early Childhood Studies; the other half (N=38) were participants with more than five years full time
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experience in early years settings and were undertaking a Foundation Degree (FD) in Early Years Care
and Education. The reasoning behind this was to increase the validity of the study by obtaining the
viewpoints from two different groups of practitioners/students; the BA (Hons) Early Childhood
Studies is a full time undergraduate course, whilst the Foundation Degree in Early Years Care and
Education is a part time vocational course and caters specifically for practising early years
practitioners and counts towards 2/3 of a BA (Hons) Degree. All participants were female and ages in
the first group ranged from 20-30, and the second group 24-55; students on both courses were in
the third year of their studies. The groups were ethnically and economically diverse. Geographically,
students on the BA Early Childhood Studies course came from all over the UK, whilst the students on
the FD in Early Years Care and Education were all local to the University, based in the South East,
where they were doing their degree.
All participants had experience of working in early years settings, either day care centers or as
childminders, catering for children aged between 3 months and four years of age. In addition to
differences between past experience of working in early years settings, there was also a difference
between the groups in relation to current experience; whilst the BA (Hons) students were in full time
education and most of them engaged with practice on a part time basis, the students on the
Foundation Degree were in full time early years practice and involved in part time study. Ethical
principles were adhered to throughout the study, i.e. participants were informed of their right to
withdraw and the questionnaire was administered in a confidential and anonymous manner. Within
the process itself, an issue that needed to be acknowledged was that of position of power, as
students may have felt obliged to participate or respond as the researcher had taught some (not all)
of the students during their three years at the University. In order to avoid power imbalance, a
colleague unrelated to the research handed the questionnaires out in her lectures and collected
them at the end.
Study 1 - Results
The questionnaire consisted of five questions. The first two questions addressed notions to do with
‘confidence’ and parents’ ‘willingness’ to talk about concerns, referring to intrapersonal and inter-
group positioning (Harre et al, 2009). A Likert-scale (1-5, where 1= strongly disagree and 5=strongly
agree) was used here:
I am confident in talking to parents about issues relating to their child
1-2-3-4-5
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Parents are generally willing to talk about concerns with regard to their infant’s social, emotional
and cognitive development.
1-2-3-4-5
There was a significant difference in the score for the students on the Foundation Degree (M=4.45,
SD .602) and the BA (Hons) (M=3.74, SD= .729), conditions; t(67)= -4.405, p=0.01 in relation to the
first statement ‘I am confident in talking to parents about issues (emotional, social) in relation to
their child’. The findings suggest that more early years practitioners on the foundation degree
indicated that they were confident to talk to parents. This is not surprising considering that these
participants spend more time in direct contact with parents, and are more experienced compared to
the other group. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding the second
question, ‘Parents are generally willing to talk about concerns with regard to their infant’s social,
emotional and/or cognitive development (t(70)= -1.529, p<.01; see table 1 for group statistics). Given
the fact that there was very little difference between the group averages, the overall answers to this
question are quite interesting. Looking at the group as a whole, 1.4% disagreed, 39.2% neither
disagreed nor agreed, 48.6% agreed and only 8.1% strongly agreed with this statement. See below
for the group statistics.
Table 1 – Group Statistics: Parents willing to discuss child development concerns
Degree N Mean SD Std Error MeanBAFD
3438
3.533.76
.662
.634.114.103
Two more questions addressed intra-group and inter-group positioning:
Parents play a key role in their child’s emotional and social well-being 1-2-3-4-5
Early Years practitioners play a key role in children emotional and social well-being 1-2-3-4-5
Again, the group results were very similar, for the first question (BA (Hons)=4.67; Foundation
Degree= 4.74) and the second question (BA(Hons) group= 4.20; Foundation degree=4.35). Of the
group as a whole 96.1% agreed/stongly agreed that parents play a key role and 91.9%
agreed/strongly agreed that early years practitioners play a key role.
The final question was slightly different to the previous questions. Here the participants were asked
to put a value on the importance of a number of factors in relation to how/whether they influence
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infant development and behaviour in daycare. As well as asking participants to evaluate their own
role here, they were also asked to reflect on the role of the home situation and the child’s
relationship with their parents. In addition to this, in line with research (e.g. Elfer and Dearnley,
2007; Grogan, 2012; Kochanska and Kim, 2012; Siraj-Blatchford, 2009; Whalley and the Pen Green
Early Years Centre, 1997) they were also asked to reflect on the role of the child’s temperament and
character and the role of the settling in programme of the setting.
Put in order of importance (1 for most important and 5 for least important). Infant behaviour
(positive and negative) in day care is influenced by:
Home situation and relationship with parents
The child’s character and temperament
How the infant is settling in
Relationship between parents and practitioners
Table 2: Importance of factors in relation to infant development and behaviour in daycare
Degree N Mean Std Deviation
Importance of home situation BAand relationship with parents FD
35 37
1.46 1.65
.741 1.160
Importance of child character BAand temperament FD
35 37
3.03 2.89
.954 1.125
Importance of how the child BAis settling in FD
35 37
2.69 3.08
1.078 1.010
Importance of relationship BAbetween parents and practitioners FD
35 37
2.86 2.81
1.353 1.266
As can be seen from the table above, the mean scores for the two groups are very close. Z-scores
were computed for the raw scores (importance of home situation and the relationship with the
parents, z=-.135; the child’s temperament and character, z=-.633; how the child is settling in, z=-
1.639; importance of relationship between the parents and practitioners, z=-.190). Using an alpha of
0.01 it is expected to have a distribution of 0.005 in each tail with a critical value of 2.575. Thus, the
z-scores show that there are no differences between the groups on any of the factors presented to
them (i.e. accept the Ho at P<0.01). Table 2 shows that participants valued the home situation and
the relationship with the parents as most important; see table 3 for group statistics.
Nb: the lower the number the higher the importance (as opposed to likert scale questions above)
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Table 3: Group statistics - Importance of factors in %
Importance
of child
character and
temperament
%
Importance of
home situation
and child’s
relationship
with parents %
Importance of
how child is
settling in %
Importance of
relationship
between
parents and
practitioners %
Valid Most Important
Important
Neutral
Little Important
Least Important
Total
Missing 99
Total
8.1
24.3
33.8
25.7
5.4
97.3
2.7
100
64.9
20.3
5.4
4.1
2.7
97.3
2.7
100
10.8
24.3
29.7
29.7
2.7
97.3
2.7
100.0
17.6
25.7
21.6
20.3
12.2
97.3
2.7
100.0
From the table above it can be seen that the infant’s home situation and the quality of the child-
parent relationship were perceived as most significant (see table 3). At the same time, the opinions
in relation to the other categories were far more divided, showing a difference in the way the
participants ranked the relative importance of settling in and parent/practitioner relationships.
Study 2
Study 2 is a qualitative study into parent-practitioner partnerships. Thirty-four participants
participated in seven in-depth focus group discussions; three were with Early Years Practitioners,
two with mothers of children aged between 2-4 years old, and two were a mix of mothers and
practitioners. There were between 4-7 participants in each focus group, and interviews lasted for up
to two hours. The focus groups with the early years practitioners, and one of the mixed groups,
were mixed gender; participants in all groups were ethnically and economically diverse. Participants
were approached through our partnerships with local early years settings. As such, this was a self-
selected sample, consisting of participants who volunteered to take part in the study. It should be
noted here that it cannot be claimed that the sample is in any way representative; participants may
have volunteered for various reasons e.g. they would have ‘something to say’ on the topic, e.g.
either as parents or practitioners, and were comfortable talking to the interviewer and each other
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(see also Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990 for more information with regard to focus group).The
interviews with the parents and one of the mixed groups took place in the preschool setting that
they were involved in, whilst the interviews with the practitioners and the other mixed group took
place at the University; this was based on convenience, with the latter groups coming from different
settings. Kitzinger (1994) argues that whilst focus groups can provide insight into the experiences of
individual participants, the real value of group data is to be found from analyzing the interaction
between participants. However, it should be noted here that the positions and perceptions that are
expressed under focus groups conditions are constructions of that specific conversation alone.
Following Haste (2014) boundary negotiation takes place through the rhetorical positioning of in-
group versus out-group. The focus group discussions were unstructured, and participants were
presented with a general topic at the start, i.e. how parents and practitioners work together to
support child development and behaviour in early years setting. Ethical principles were adhered to
throughout the study; informed consent was obtained and participants were informed of their right
to withdraw.
The interviews were analysed using a two-level ‘synthesized’ discourse analysis (Sims-Schouten and
Riley, 2014; Wetherell, 1998). Firstly, drawing on discursive psychology, the focus was on the
interactive accomplishments of talk, such as managing facts, blame and accountability (Potter,
1997). Discursive psychologists affiliate with conversation analytic traditions (Sacks, 2001), and are
primarily concerned with what people do with their talk, e.g. disclaiming and making extreme
statements (Pomerantz, 1986). The second level of discourse analysis focused on the wider
discourses that participants drew on to make sense of themselves, including common sense
discourses and ideologies (Billig, 1989, 2001). For discursive psychologists, mind and reality are seen
as first and foremost resources for participants in dialogue. Here, analysis focuses specifically on
examining how, on what occasions and in the service of what kinds of interactional practices
discourse manages its objective and subjective bases (Edwards, 1997). Focussing on how ‘we’ and
‘they’ are located in the dialogue between the participants in the focus groups, complete with self-
justifications and self-representations allows a more interactionally and dynamically focused
resource for analysis. Data was transcribed in detail, drawing on Jefferson (1985); attention was
given to aspects of talk in relation to intonation (↑↓ in the extracts for rising and lowering
intonation), pauses, speeded up talk (> <), quiet speech (◦ ◦), to give a few examples. See appendix
for transcription notions.
Study 2 - Results
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Below are the findings from the focus group discussions with the parents, practitioners and mixed
groups, with a specific focus on key notions and stategies in relation to positioning. The extracts
below represent key themes in relation to intra-group and inter-group positioning. The parent focus
groups were characterised by a focus on parents as responsible for the child. At the same time, the
mixed focus groups showed evidence of normative expressions and negotiations (including self-
justifications and self-representations), with parents being positioned in terms of their (social)
background and practitioners in relation to their duties and impact on the child. The focus on the
social background of the parents was also adopted in the practitioner focus groups.
Parents:
The first extract comes from a focus group with four mothers; all were using the same nursery, a day
care centre which caters for children aged between 3 months and five years old. The extract below is
part of a discussion around the role of parents. By reflecting on their own role and parents as a
group, the participants engage in a form of intra-group positioning; the extract starts 15 minutes into
the interview.
1. W1: ↑Obviously, if he is n↑aughty in nursery .hh you feel bad a::s as a p↑arent,
2. >because at h↑ome< you’re, you’re disciplining them, >you know<, and th:en, then
3. they do it in n↑ursery, you kn↓ow, you fee:l (2.0) they can be nasty to other children
4. (2.0) and you’re thinking, ‘well, I’m d↑oing what I can at home ◦you know◦, I’m not
5. just doing n↑othi[ng.
6. W2: [Cause that is what we do as parents, we try to make them
7. good .hh (1.0) ◦so you want them◦ (2.0) you want them (1.0) they go elsewh↑ere
8. (1.0) >you want someone to come back and say< ‘your boys were r↑eally l↑ovely’
In the first half of the extract (lines 1-5) parents are constructed as being responsible for their child’s
behaviour, in and outside the home. This is introduced as a given through the use of the word
‘↑Obviously’ (line 1), which suggests that this is common sense and also indicates that the others in
the focus group (as parents) are in a position to agree with this (see also Edwards, 1997). The
popular ideal of the 'good mother' as someone who knows what her infant needs, and is responsible
for them to ‘turn out right’ are the child-centred ideals that are now very much mainstream (McKie
et al, 2001; Phoenix and Woollett, 1994). This is also evident from the three-way-list completer (this
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refers to the tendency to use three arguments to support a point, see Antaki and Wetherell, 1999)
that participant W1 uses to position herself and parents in general. Here she uses three arguments
‘>because at h↑ome< you’re, you’re disciplining them’ (line 2, with the reference to h↑ome being
uttered very quickly, indicated by ><), followed by ‘ well, I’m d↑oing what I can at home’ (line 4) and
‘I’m not just doing n↑othi[ng’ (lines 4,5) to back up her key argument that ‘you feel bad a::s as a
p↑arent’ (note the emphasis on bad here) if your child is naughty in nursery. The use of ‘you know’
in lines 2 and 3 hints at common knowledge (Edwards, 1997), again positioning parents as ultimately
responsible for how the child behaves; the relatively long pauses of 2.0 seconds in lines 3 and 4
suggest that this participant may have some trouble with the subject (see also Speer and Potter,
2000). Positioning theory brings to light the normative frames within which people carry on their
lives, with ‘duties’ being shorthand terms for clusters of normative presuppositions that people are
believed to be bound by (Harre et al, 2009). This in and of itself can lead to guilt when those duties
and reponsibilities are not met.
The duties and responsibilities of the ‘good parent’ are also flagged up in lines 6-8 of the extract
above. Here the participant constructs making the child good (line 7, specifically stressing ‘good’
here) as a category-bound-activity (inferences concerning typical activities of their incumbents, see
Silverman, 2001) of parents. In what follows, the participant makes an indirect reference to parent-
practitioner relationships by saying ‘>you want someone to come back and say< (line 8, which is
presumably a reference to the nursery, which is referred to in line 1) that your boys are ‘r↑eally
l↑ovely’.
The next extract takes the notion of parents as being responsible for how their child turns out a step
further. Here, the participants construct parents in terms of two groups, one who are the involved
parents and one consisting of parents who are not involved, with the latter group being positioned
as not meeting their normative duties. By doing this, they engage in a form of inter-group
positioning, distancing themselves from the insufficient group of parents. The interview is with five
mothers (all are using the same preschool setting, which caters for children aged between 9 months
and five years of age) and is part of a discussion around how parents and practitioners work together
to support child behaviour. Interestingly, whilst the participants discussed the role and duties of
parents in detail, very little reference was made to the role of practitioners here (around 30 minutes
into the interview).
1. W3: I think sometimes (2.0) err sometimes you can sort of t↑ell (2.0) with,
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2. wi:th the parents that are more involved with their children, tha::n the ones
3. that just let them get ↑on with it. I think you can tell the d↑ifference.
4. The ones that d↑ont err interact with them m↓uch, u↑sually, have more
5. naughty children, ◦obviously not always◦
Again, parents are positioned as being responsible for their child’s behaviour. Not only that, as with
Study 1, parent-child relationships are treated as playing a significant role here. At the same time,
the participant in the extract above is careful in how she constructs this, which is evident from her
use of ‘sort of’ in line 1 and ‘◦obviously not always◦’ (line 5), as well as the long pauses in line 1 – all
of this serves to innoculate the participant against doubt and disagreement from others who may
not be in a position to agree with this (Hepburn and Potter, 2011).
Mixed Group
In the mixed groups there was clear evidence of inter-group positioning, with the participants
negotiating their positions in different ways. Interestingly, this often resulted in the parents
positioning the practitioners in terms of having a ‘real’ impact on their child in positive terms, and
the practitioners engaging in more generic discussions in relation to the child’s home situation and
background. As with the extracts above, parents are made ultimately accountable and are
positioned in terms of engaging in good or bad practices in relation to their child. The extract below
is part of a discussion around the importance of interactions outside of the family (10 mins into the
focus group). The focus group consists of six participants, with four early years practitioners, one of
which was male, and two mothers; all participants had links to different early years settings.
1. W2: I’ll be h↑onest .hh ↑erm, I totally agr↑ee with what W1 said because with my
2. ↑oldest one (1.0) I err didnt go to parent and toddler groups ◦and stuff◦ when he
3. started (1.0) >when he started<, when he started sch↑oo::l he did find it h↓ard
4. erm (1.0) ◦to communicate with other children◦ erm, but at the s↓ame ti::me,
5. I d↑o think it’s down to practitioners or pre-school teachers to h↑elp him and
6. >encourage him as well<, and to stop the other children ◦making him◦ (1.0) that
7. person or chil to be p↑in pointed as w↑[ell
8. W1: [And don’t forget that some children come
9. from different backgrounds, and some children don’t actually get the attention when
10. they deserve attention >some children get l↑ots of attention, they’re sp↑oilt
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11. r↑otten< .hh and some chi:ldren err, their parents j↓ust have th children for the
12. sake of having children, and you can see the difference in the child
Note that in the extract above, W2 is a mother, and W1 is an early years practitioner; W2 responds
to W1’s suggestions that it is important for children to interact with different people. W2
wholeheartedly agrees with this, which is evident from the extreme case formulation ‘I totally
agr↑ee’ in line 1 (see also Pomerantz, 1986). This argument is strengthened by linking this to her
own stake and interest (‘I’ll be h↑onest’). In the bit that follows, she constructs being able to
communicate with other children (line 4) as a membership categorisation device (i.e. the
recognizability of people and situations as having certain functions, Silverman, 2001) of attending
parent and toddlergroups. Yet, although she positions the parents as being indirectly responsible
here, by not fulfilling their duty of attending the relevant parent and toddler groups, she also
engages in inter-group positioning by ascribing accountability to practitioners here as well. This is
evident from the disclaimer ‘but at the s↓ame ti::me’ (line 4), after which she uses a three-way-list
completer (Antaki and Wetherell, 1999) (‘it’s down to practitioners or pre-school teachers to h↑elp
him’, ‘>encourage him as well<’ and ‘stop the other children’, lines 5, 6) to highlight that
practitioners also have specific duties in relation to the children in their care.
The response from W1 in lines 8-12 is interesting, as instead of picking up on W2’s utterance in
relation to the role of practitioners, she relates the argument back to parents and social background.
By introducing this as a fact ‘And don’t forget’ (line 8) she is innoculating against any doubt and
disagreement (Speer and Potter, 2000). Here, she makes a direct link between ‘different
backgrounds’ (line 9) and the amount of attention children get, thereby again positioning parents as
reponsible for how their child turns out and behaves in the setting. Not only that, she also draws on
her own experience here, providing a strong warrant for factual accuracy: ‘and you can see the
difference in the child’ (line 12). Cottle and Alexander (2014) also found that parents tend to be
positioned (by early years practitioners) as either deficient or as active agents in terms of their
engagement with early years settings, leading to social stigmas, where parents are judged in terms
of their social economic status, ethnic diversity and home situation.
The next extract is part of a discussion around supporting young children, and treating children as
individuals, and comes from a focus group with four participants, two of which are parents and two
practitioners. All participants are female and all are involved in the same early years setting, a
nursery which caters for children aged between three months to five years old.
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1. W2: So, I think it’s down to like err (1.0) >you know<, you let the children
2. be ch↑ildren.
3. W3: Yeah
4. W1: And, I erm, I t↑otally agr↑ee, I to::tally, you know agr↑ee with >what she’s
5. saying<, because you know, my::, my three-year-old (1.) his >before he started
6. pre-school< he::, he >you know< .hh he would o:nly st↓ay w:ith m↑e and his, his
7. dad >and stuff< and when (1.0) >and when we had ◦family gatherings and stuff◦<
8. it was m↑ore, more of a >confidence issues he had<, and we were trying to,
9. trying to:: get him like (1.0) encourage him doing you know >playing with children
10. and stuff<, he would s↑ee the children there (1.0), he would f↑eel that he was
11. >you know<, probably felt really small, so he was coming to use for, you know
12. >for us to build up confidence<, as soon as he started pr↑e-school, they have
13. done s↑o much work with him >as well as stuff at home< b↓t just with someone
14. indep↑endent to (1.0) .hh to enc↑ourage him and ermm get him to talk a bit
15. mo:re and get him to interact with other children.
Participants W2 and W3 in the extract above are both practitioners, and W1 is a parent. Two broad
things are happening in the discussion above. Firstly, participant W1 shows strong support for W2’s
suggestion to ‘let the children be ch↑ildren’ (lines 1, 2); this is evident from the extreme case
formulation (Pomerantz, 1986) in line 4 ‘I t↑otally agr↑ee, I to::tally, you know agr↑ee’. Not only
does she completely agree with W1, she also positions the practitioners in the early years setting as
having done a lot for her child (line 13 ‘done s↑o much work with him’). Yet, as well as highlighting
the difference that the practitioners have made in encouraging her child to talk a bit more and
interact with other children (lines 14, 15), she also attributes this to her and her partner’s role.
However, she goes into far more detail in her discussion in relation to her own role, as a parent,
suggesting that this perhaps requires more justification. Here she uses a number of strategies. In
lines 8/9 she positions herself (and her partner) as encouraging her child to be social. By giving a
specific example, complete with ‘◦family gatherings and stuff◦’ (line 7), she provides a strong warrant
for factual accuracy (see also Speer and Potter, 2000). In addition to this, she shows that she has a
good relationship with her child as ‘he was coming to us’ (line 11). Lastly, when she refers to how
much the practitioners have done for her child, she also refers back to her own role, very quickly
(line 13, indicated by ><) ‘>as well as stuff at home<’. Moreover, as well as dedicating some time
and effort to positioning herself as a ‘good parent’, she also staves of any sense that any of the
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confidence issues highlighted in lines 8 and 12 might be down to problems with her child; instead,
she refers to his size here ‘probably felt really small’ (line 11).
Practitioners:
The next extract is part of a discussion around priorities, and how parents choose daycare settings
and starts thirty minutes into the interview; the focus group consists of four females and two males,
all participants work in different early years settings.
1. W1: .hh What is conv↑enient, err how early does it ↑open (1.0) how late is it open, 2. is it close to h↑ome, .hh err >I think< a lot of th::ose are the priorities (1.0) a::nd >will 3. my child be h↑appy< ◦for◦, for s↑ome p↑arents comes >comes quite far down the list<4. .hh and they err, they think my child will adapt to ↑it. Yet, it is the relationship we::, 5. w↑e have with parents >that is key here< a:nd, and the parents’ willingness to eng↑age, 6. for a child to settle [in.7. W2: [Yeah
This extract paints quite a grim picture of parents. Here, parents are positioned as prioritising issues
of convenience (through the three-way list completer: ‘how early does it ↑open’, ‘how late is it
open’ and ‘is it close to h↑ome’, lines 1,2) over the needs of the child (see line 3). This is softened by
the use of ‘s↑ome p↑arents ‘ (line 3), suggesting that not all parents are like that. After this (lines 4-
7), the practitioner turns to the’relationship’ (stressed in line 4) between parents and practitioners .
Research consistently highlights the significance of parent-partnerships (e.g. see Athey, 1991;
Bastiani, 2003; Easen et al, 1992; Hadley, 2012; Whalley, 2007). This includes establishing ways to
actively engage with parents (see also Whalley and Pen Green Early Years Centre, 1997). Yet, as with
Study 1, issues to do with parents’ ‘willingness to eng↑age’ (line 5) are raised here. This is done by
adopting a form of inter-group positioning, where unlike the parents, practitioners are constructed
as pro-active in stimulating participation and cooperation (evident from the stress on ‘Yet, it is the
relationship’ in line 4). In addition to this, what happens in the setting is directly linked to parent-
partnerships (‘for a child to settle [in’, line 6).
The next extract is part of a discussion around the role of the child’s home situation, and starts about
ten minutes into a focus group interview with five participants, one male and four females.
(10 mins); all participants work in different settings.
1. W1: >I think it can be to do with their s↑oc↓ial background<, because if their
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2. parents aren’t parenting them at home {all agree}
3. W1: ◦telling them they need to share, they do need to be gentle◦ .hh or they might
4. have a culture at home erm (1.0) in one particular instance, (1.0) erm, so a very very
5. lovely family >◦with children that are coming to preschool◦<, but daddy, daddy’s been
6. >taking his little boy to boxing<, and he’s, he is ↑only thr↑ee, and he goes boxing,
7. s↑o it’s natural to him to come ↑in and .hh want to box with the children, because
8. that is what he does with daddy {laughs}, so for them (1.0) the family feels that’s
9. that’s perfectly f↑ine.
Again, ‘what happens at home’ and how the child gets on in the setting is extended to the role of
the parents and the notion that parents are their child’s first and foremost educators (Whalley,
2007). Here, participant W1 flags up and emphasises (evident from the rising intonation and stress
on ‘s↑oc↓ial background’, line 1) the role of the child’s background, and links this to the notion of
whether parents are or aren’t parenting their child at home; all participants appears to agree with
this (line 2). In the bit that follows (lines 3-9), a number of strategies are at play. Effectively, what W1
is saying is that the parenting practices and ‘culture’ (line 4) of one of the families that she deals with
in her setting are such, that it is affecting the child’s behaviour in the setting (see line 7). However,
here she is making this family’s social background, rather than their intentions, accountable, which is
evident from her focus on the fact that this is ‘a very very lovely family’ (lines 4, 5). By doing this,
she is also innoculating against doubt and disgreement, as well as positioning herself as a fairly non-
judgemental person (see also Eriksson-Barajas and Aronsson, 2009). Not only that, her laughter in
line 8, suggests that she may have some trouble with the subject (Edwards, 2000). As well as being
careful in not making the parents completely accountable here, she also constructs the child as
innocent, which is evident from her utterance that it is ’natural to him to come ↑in and .hh want to
box with the children’ (line 7).
Discussion and Conclusion
In this paper, parent involvement has been defined in terms of co-production in the learning and
development of the child (Bastiani , 2003, Siraj-Blatchford et al, 2002).Some of this is reflected in
study 1 and 2, with parents being positioned in terms of the child’s first and foremost educators, and
practitioners in terms of their impact and influence on the child. Yet, although there is evidence of
an awareness of the importance of collaborative and mutual relationships in both study 1 and 2,
there are perhaps some ongoing stigmas and labels that need to be tackled here. For example,
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parents were often constructed as lacking, e.g. in their ‘willingness to engage’ (study 1 and study 2),
and their involvement, priorities and ability to fulfill their parenting role (study 2). Here different
forms of positioning were at play (Harre et al, 2009). For example, in study 1 the participants put
value on both their own position as a practitioners and the parents in playing a key role in the child’s
emotional and social wellbeing. Yet, within this they valued the relationships between parents and
practitioners as far less important, compared to the role of the child’s home situation (see table 2
and 3). Some of this is mirrored in study 2, where the parents in the parent focus groups used a form
of intra-group positioning, highlighting the importance of their own parenting role (‘as a parent..’). In
addition to this, inter-group positioning was applied in discussions around ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parents.
Yet, whilst the parents appeared defensive at times in their positioning of themselves and their
parenting role, no such thing appeared to happen with the practitioners. In both the mixed and
practitioner focus groups, a sense was created of early years practitioners as being supportive and
willing to engage and cooperate with parents. Yet, parents were often constructed as deficient,
either in terms of having the wrong priorities or due to their cultural and social-economic
background.
There are some lessons to be learned here. Parent involvement plays a key role in the statutory
framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage in England, and there is evidence that children
benefit the most from their experience in daycare if their parents are actively involved (DfE, 2014;
Nall et al, 2010). Duncan (2005) uses the term ‘moral rationalities’ to describe mothers’ perspectives
regarding their roles and responsibilities, including in relation to daycare. He discusses this along
three dimensions, i.e. in relation to how mothers perceive their children's needs, their own needs,
and the balance between the two sets of needs. Following Duncan (2005), in relation to their
children's needs, mothers’ views centred on the need for a child to have a secure emotional tie with
a carer, as well as the need for education, child development, and more general socialisation.
Effective parent involvement and participation in early years settings is key here. Yet, this is only
possible if partnerships are reciprocal, constructive and empowering (e.g. Grady et al, 2012). Here it
is also important to take the training, personal histories and beliefs of early years practitioners into
account, as it is the belief that practitioners hold about their capabilities that makes the difference
between success and failure (Sims-Schouten and Stittrich-Lyons, 2014). Research indicates that
professional identity in early years is often derived from status through qualifications and knowledge
base and the respect and confidence that comes with this (e.g. Osgood, 2009). Yet, defining
professionalism in the early years workforce is the subject of much debate, and there is a need to
recognise the complexity of professional identity and positioning within this, also if we want to
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tackle the unhelpful positions described in this paper. More needs to be done to promote the role of
parent-partnerships at the earliest stage and in the education and ongoing CPD (continuing
professional development) of early years practitioners.
This study has some limitations; due to the small-scale set up of study 1 and study 2, this paper can
only really be perceived as an exploratory study, providing an initial view into the positioning of
parents and practitioners. In addition to this, whilst a number of authors (e.g. Butler and Hamnett,
2007; Vincent and Ball, 2006) have identified social class as a key variable in the interactions
between parents , early years practitioners and teachers, the sample of the present study was such
that class as a variable could not be readily explored. More research is needed to gain an insight into
parent-partnerships, including notions to do with class, social background and ethnicity, with a view
to empowering both early years practitioners and parents within this.
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Wetherell, M. (1998). Positioning and interpretative repertoires: conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue. Discourse & Society, 9 (3), 387-412.
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Transcription Notions
◦ ◦ Encloses speech that is quieter that the
surrounding talk.
(1.0) Pause length in seconds.
- Hyphen Word broken off.
↑ Rising intonation.
↓ Lowering intonation.
CAPITAL LETTERS Talk that is louder than the surrounding
talk.
Underline Stress/emphasis.
> < Encloses speeded up talk.
( ) Encloses words the transcriber is unsure
about. Empty brackets enclose talk that is
not hearable.
.hhh In-breath.
[ ] Overlapping speech.
[ Onset of overlapping speech.
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{ } Clarification, referring to tone or gesture,
e.g. {laughs}
::: Extended sound.
= Marks the immediate ‘latching’ of
successive talk, whether of one or more
speakers, with no interval.
(Edwards, 1997; Jefferson, 1985)