Rethinking parental involvement for greater parent agency in early childhood development in South Africa

Abstract

Internationally, the focus on parents in their variety of forms and how to enable their resourcefulness continues to invite debate in early childhood development (ECD). In South Africa, the change in the function shift in ministries, the development of curriculum and teacher education policies for ECD has necessitated a key focus on parents as knowledge holders with agency. This article aims to rethink the constraining model of parental involvement to enable greater parent agency in ECD. A qualitative case study utilising purposeful sampling of eleven parent participants in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District of the North West Province was undertaken to accomplish this. The sociological perspective of parent agency and the continuum from parental involvement to parental engagement theory, as posited by Goodall and Montgomery (2014), is used to make sense of parents’ positionalities. The findings show that the centres were strongly positioned as the agents who cast parents as helpers in the activities of the centre as well as providers and consumers of information. This made the parental involvement conceptualisation dominant. The lack of focus on parent agency has created a need for urgent intervention to support parents as primary caregivers and to enhance the theme of “no parent left behind”.