Allegories on creating opportunities for dialogue between childcare practitioners and parents during an action research in two out-of-school care centres

Abstract

In out-of-school care centres in Flanders, building warm and trusting relationships with parents is both an important aim and a huge frustration. Practitioners often struggle with their role towards parents and feel insufficiently trained to deal with increasing expectations about cooperation with parents. In this article we describe the results of an action research on improving the relationship between practitioners and parents in two out-of-school care centres. The article focuses on showing how the work on contacts between practitioners and parents also changed the meaning practitioners attached to parental involvement in out-of-school care. We use four allegorical stories to report on these changes. These allegories show how practitioners, through their active engagement in the action research, have moved from distrust or fear of parents to dialogue, from a we/them story to a story of togetherness, and from low self-confidence to growing strength.