Negotiating parental agency in daily encounters with educators

An interactional perspective on partnership in early childhood education

Authors

  • Laurent Filliettaz University of Geneva
  • Marianne Zogmal University of Geneva
  • Stéphanie Garcia University of Applied Sciences in Social Work in Lausanne (HETSL)
  • Ayla Bimonte University of Geneva
  • Stephen Billett Griffith University
  • Beverley Flückiger Griffith University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.24208

Keywords:

agency, interaction, early childhood education, parents, partnerships, professional practice

Abstract

In this paper, we reflect on the relationships between parents and professionals in early childhood education, as they unfold on a daily basis when parents drop off children in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. The paper seeks to understand how parents exert agency in such contexts, and how professionals respond to such agency by facilitating or negotiating active contributions from parents during these short encounters. We adopt a situated and interactional perspective on agency in professional practice informed by a multimodal approach to discourse and interaction, presenting an empirical research design consisting of tangible face-to-face encounters between parents and professionals through audiovisual recordings in the context of Switzerland. The paper explores a collection of four case studies extracted from a dataset comprising over a thousand video-recorded encounters between parents and professionals, and identifies various expressions of parental agency as they occur in interactions during the drop-offs and pick-ups. It also describes and elaborates how professionals respond to such expressions and contribute to a joint accomplishment of parental agency at work. The findings show that parents and educators play an active role in how these encounters unfold, in the sorts of actions, frames and participation frameworks collaboratively accomplished during drop-offs and pick-ups and in establishing rapport in interaction. The findings are discussed from the perspective of professional practice in the field of early childhood education, especially ‘transitional encounters’ related to educational practices in early childhood education.

Author Biographies

  • Laurent Filliettaz, University of Geneva

    Laurent Filliettaz received his PhD in linguistics from the University of Geneva and is currently Full Professor at the Department of Adult and Vocational Education at the University of Geneva. His research interests include discourse and interaction analysis in institutional settings and vocational training contexts. He has published several books, book chapters and journal articles both in French and English, including promotion of applied linguistic methods in the field of vocational education and training research.

  • Marianne Zogmal, University of Geneva

    Marianne Zogmal received her PhD in Educational Sciences from the University of Geneva and is currently Senior Researcher at the Department of Adult and Vocational Education at the University of Geneva and at the University of Applied Sciences in Social Work in Lausanne. Her research interests include professional practice and vocational training in early childhood education and social work. She has published several books, book chapters and journal articles in French on the topic of interactional competences in early childhood education.

  • Stéphanie Garcia, University of Applied Sciences in Social Work in Lausanne (HETSL)

    Stéphanie Garcia is a PhD candidate in Education at the University of Geneva and is currently conducting doctoral research on partnership relationships between parents and professionals in early childhood education. She also holds a position of Assistant Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Social Work in Lausanne. She has recently published research papers in French in journals such as Phronesis, Savoirs and Transformations.

  • Ayla Bimonte, University of Geneva

    Ayla Bimonte is a PhD candidate in Education at the University of Geneva and is currently conducting doctoral research on guidance and tutoring practices in special needs education. She holds the position of research assistant at the department of adult and vocational education at the University of Geneva. Her research interests include topics related the socio-professional integration of adults living with a mental disability.

  • Stephen Billett, Griffith University

    Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia) and a National Teaching Fellow and Australian Research Council Future Fellow. His research interests include learning through and for work, workplace learning, work and conceptual accounts of learning for vocational purposes. He is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education (Springer) and lead editor of the book series Professional and Practice-Based Learning (Springer).

  • Beverley Flückiger, Griffith University

    Beverley Flückiger is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University in Australia and a researcher in the Griffith Institute for Educational Research (GIER). Her research interests focus on improving the life chances of children described as disadvantaged in Australian society. Her work is currently focused on building mutually supportive and authentic family, early childhood education centre, school and community relationships through collective leadership.

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Published

2024-07-22

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2021)

Section

Articles

License

Equinox Publishing Ltd.

How to Cite

Filliettaz, L., Zogmal, M., Garcia, S., Bimonte, A., Billett, S., & Flückiger B. (2024). Negotiating parental agency in daily encounters with educators: An interactional perspective on partnership in early childhood education. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 18(1), 66-103. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.24208