Relationships between a Teacher and Parents and Building a Friendly, Educational Space for a Kindergarten Child: Narratives of Male Preschool Teachers

Abstract

The teacher-parent cooperation is an inseparable part of teachers’ work in preschool education. Although important for kindergarten, it is also often not satisfying. The aim of the qualitative research was to recognize and understand the experiences of shaping and developing relationships with parents from the perspective of male preschool teachers and to answer the question of how do they perceive and understand their relationship with parents of kindergarten children. The research based on narrative interviews was conducted in 2019–2020 among 18 male preschool teachers from Poland. The categories describing the development of relationships between male teachers and parents, ways of shaping them from a time perspective, and important values were distinguished. The results show that the conscious care of the relationship with parents by male teachers contributes to the creation of friendly educational space for children. Experiences related to relations with parents and the meanings given to them by men working in kindergartens were referred to social constructivism as a legitimate interpretation trend. Highlighted category of place understood as the material space of the kindergarten and the space of friendly social relations also made it possible to embed the narratives in the pedagogy of place as understood by Maria Mendel.