Parents' awareness of the areas of professional activity of early childhood education specialists

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the awareness of parents (N=736) of the areas of professional activity of early childhood education specialists in preschools. The study used the rating scale method and a five-point rating scale (PAESP - the Professional Activities of Education Specialists in Preschools), constructed for the purposes of this research. The data obtained were processed using the SPSS program, and are presented in textual and tabular form. The results indicate that parents are partially acquainted with preschool professionals' areas of activity. With regard to age, the findings suggest that younger parents tend to be better informed; they also suggest an inverse relationship between parents' education level and their level of awareness of preschool professionals' areas of activity, with university educated parents being less aware of the possibility of consulting preschool education specialists in order to obtain information about the means and methods used in education compared to parents with secondary or tertiary level education. The implications of the research point to the need for informing parents about the areas of activity of education specialists in preschools through a systematic approach aimed at supporting the development of preschool children.

Keywords

• parents' awareness
• preschool institution
• areas of professional activity