Parenthood 2.0 Erasmus Project

Project Title

Parenthood 2.0

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Assurance; Integration of refugees; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Background of the project
The goal was to develop the quality of the preschool education (early childhood education) through parents’ understanding of the role of the preschool in education. Through parental participation the project aimed at increasing the quality and reducing early school leaving. The sectoral priority “Enhancing the Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care” was therefore an overall priority for the project, which means the assurance that all the children should be allowed a good start in their education.
The refugee situation has put greater demands on the participating organisations in the project and we wanted to prepare us for the cultural diversity in our preschools to counteract diversification. The preschool has a role to play in the integration process and by creating forums for families to meet and with a focus on children’s opportunities for a good life through education, this project aimed to ultimately strengthen democracy, understanding of human equality and quality in preschool.
The participating organisations wanted to do this project together because of the mutual challenges in our preschools but also since participation is an indicator of quality in the preschools, something both organisations needed to develop.

Objectives
1. Create knowledge about data, gathering data and presenting the data as a means to improve the quality work.
2. Create mutual knowledge and experience of how to analyse these data for learning.
3. Based on the data, develop sustainable and new forums and arenas, physical and digital, for cooperation and participation of parents, families and citizens.
4. Through this enhance the quality of early childhood education and care and as a consequence create understanding of the importance of education and by doing so supporting schools to prevent early school leaving.

Participating organisations
The participating organisations are Sector Education West Gothenburg and the Union of Municipalities of Bassa Reggiana. Two preschools, Skattegårdsvägen and Zenit in Boretto, one from each organization have been extra monitored even though all preschools in the organisation have been represented during the project.
The project has been in contact with two universities:The project was supported by a researcher from University of Gothenburg and there has been dialogues with the University of Modena and Reggio on how to develop the results of the project further. The researchers have ensured that the project have maintained high quality throughout the process.

Activities
Training Activities (TRAC) – the four TRACs served as a platform for the exchange of experiences. The focus was on visiting each other’s services and preschools to enable mutual learning and exchange ideas. The main methods used were networking, dialogue and exchange of experience. In workshops the participants have been able to discuss and reflect on the Project results which have been important to the outputs and outcomes of the Project. The direct participants in the activities were Preschool Directors, Pedagogistas, development managers and other professionals working with families.
Parent forums – three parent forums at the named preschool in each country have been completed. The aim has been to invite the parents into a more inclusive preschool and make parents and families participate more. The parents have discussed and reflected on their role as a parent of a child in the preschool.
Project Management Group (PMG) – The PMG have had representatives from both participating organisations. The group has met five times during the project in order to manage and monitor the project and evaluate the process to reassure that the quality is maintained and that the transnational interests are secured.

Results and impacts
Participants who are not working in the preschool gained more understanding and knowledge for the preschools mission and organisation and vice versa.
The professionals who participated in the TRAC created new professional relationships across the sectors which facilitated new cooperations across the sectors, greater understanding for the different services and support available for families and family-centered work. The Swedish participants focused on develop new forums, methods and guidelines for communication with parents. The Italian participants has focused on identified and develop new kinds of data. The data was analysed and shared with different stakeholders to raise the quality of parent participation. This process stimulated new discussions among the professionals across sectors and spread good practice. The method with meetings has been a successful way to investigate parents participation in early education. One scientific article has been written on the importance of participation in families based on the work with the family forums. The article gives a general picture on the importance of family inclusion in preschool as important for inclusion in society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 70350 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stadsdelsförvaltning Västra Göteborg, Sektor utbildning & Country: SE

Project Partners

• UNIONE DEI COMUNI BASSA REGGIANA