ABSTRACT

Studies about parents’ expectations of their children’s achievements in primary and secondary school often conclude that such expectations have an impact on academic achievements. This poses two quandaries for early childhood education (ECE): there is minimal research focusing on parents’ expectations concerning achievements of young children; if parental expectations in ECE are also linked to academic achievements, other achievements of potential significance for young children and which can be promoted through early experiences are ignored. This article reviews responses to an open-ended statement submitted by 1975 parents whose children were attending early years settings in Malta. A phenomenological approach to data collection was adopted in this exploratory study as parents were invited to list three expectations about their children’s achievements resulting from experiences accrued in formal settings. NVivo analyses yielded nine broad categories of expectations. Personal, social development, school readiness/academic achievements, skills development and personal learning were the four most frequently cited expectations. Results are analysed using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory. Having high expectations for each child is recommended but these need to be realistic, contextualised, shared and incorporated in the planning and design of learning opportunities which respect children’s individuality, while acknowledging their abilities and learning characteristics.

摘要

关于父母对孩子在中小学成绩的期望的研究经常得出这样的结论：这种期望会对学业成绩产生影响。这给幼儿教育（ECE）带来了两个难题：很少有研究关注家长对幼儿成就的期望；如果父母对幼儿教育的期望也与学业成绩挂钩，那么对幼儿具有潜在意义并可以通过早期经历促进的其他成就就会被忽视。本文回顾了对 1975 年孩子在马耳他就读早教机构的家长提交的一份开放式声明的回应。这项探索性研究采用了现象学方法来收集数据，邀请家长列出对孩子在正式环境中积累的经验所取得的成就的三种期望。NVivo 分析得出了九大类预期。个人、社会发展、入学准备/学术成就、技能发展和个人学习是最常被提及的四个期望。使用布朗芬布伦纳的生物生态系统理论对结果进行分析。建议对每个孩子抱有很高的期望，但这些期望必须是现实的、情境化的、共享的，并纳入学习机会的规划和设计中，尊重孩子的个性，同时承认他们的能力和学习特征。