Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Dear Colleagues,

Over 40 years ago, Bronfenbrenner (1979) proposed that children’s development should not be considered alone, without taking into account a range of other impacts. He neatly conceptualised these interacting factors as systems, providing the metaphor of a set of Russian dolls. Four decades later, with many different expansions of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, and many different ways of conceptualising the impact the world around children has on their development (for example, sociocultural theory), we still find that Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) bioecological model underpins much of the research and praxis driving the early childhood education sector. One of the key elements in the model, and its various derivatives, is the idea that the key environments through which children experience the world are those of the family/home and their early childhood service. Bronfenbrenner’s concept of the mesosystem suggests that the relationship between these two key environments is essential: when the learning priorities and strategies to support learning and perceptions of the child’s agency and capacity for learning are similar across these different environments, it is clear that children’s outcomes are enhanced. In contrast, when these are in conflict, children’s learning can be compromised. However, both of these key environments are embedded in cultural and community contexts that also shape not only how we function in our various environments, but what is valued for learning and praxis. In this Special Issue, we seek to explore current research focusing on family involvement in early childhood education. We seek to understand more about the factors that influence the ways in which families can be involved, the barriers needing to be overcome and the praxis necessary to support best outcomes for children.

References

1. Bronfenbrenner, Urie. The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard university press, 1979. 
2. Bronfenbrenner, Urie. Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. sage, 2005.

Prof. Dr. Margaret Sims
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• mesosystem
• family involvement in ECE
• relationships with parents
• ECE and families
• parent/EC teacher relationships
• parent/EC educator relationships
• families in ECE