The Pluralisation of Family Life: Implications for Preschool Education

Abstract

The article takes as its starting point the public debate about the newly proposed Family Code in Slovenia in 2009. Inter alia, the Code introduced a new, inclusive definition of the family in accordance with the contemporary pluralisation of family life. This raised a number of questions about how – if at all – various families are addressed in the process of preschool education in public preschools in Slovenia. We maintain that the family is the child’s most important frame of reference. It is therefore necessary for the preschool community to respect family plurality and treat it as such in everyday life and work. In addition, preschool teachers and preschool teacher assistants are bound by the formal framework and the current curriculum, which specifies that children in preschools must be acquainted with various forms of families and family communities. This also implies that parents – despite their right to educate their children in accordance with their religious and philosophical convictions – have no right to interfere in the educational process and insist on their particular values, such as the demand that some family forms remain unmentioned.

Keywords

• family
• pluralisation of family life
• preschool
• curriculum