"How Is My Child Doing?": Selected Case Studies of How Childcare Centres Meet the DoPs Requirement to Discuss Children's Progress with Parents

Abstract

The 1989 New Zealand educational reforms heralded major changes in all sectors of education. These changes included the introduction of a charter, which is essentially a contract, between the Crown and each individual education service. The Early Childhood Charter Guidelines: A Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices, promulgated by the Minister of Education in December 1990, became the basis for the contract document required of early childhood centres which sought to become chartered centres in receipt of government finding. The Early Childhood Charter Guidelines, commonly referred to as the `DoPs', include over 60 requirements and objectives which early childhood services must meet as part of their contractual obligations (Meade and Dalli, 1991). Included in these is a requirement that centre personnel make provision at all times 'for parents and families to discuss their child's progress and be informed about their child's daily programme' (Ministry of Education 1990, p.3). The meaning and intent of the above requirement was investigated in a study carried out in the second half of 1994 in which government agency, parent, and centre personnel understanding of the requirement was investigated. The study was carried out as part of the requirements of the Master of Education programme in which the first author was enrolled. This paper focuses on data from interviews with parents and teachers which show how teachers in eleven childcare centres translated the requirement into manageable systems within their centres. The paper also illuminates the practices that developed in the centres from these systems and the extent to which the requirement became a tool for the development of parent-teacher partnerships in the education and care of children.