Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative, focused ethnography study was to examine the educator and parent interactions in Montessori school and to identify the ways that parents influence the Montessori early childhood educational environments. This study sought to develop specific tools and events in an effort to strengthen the relationships between parents and educators. In doing so, parents and educators have the opportunity to learn from each other, thus allowing for both parties to implement changes that will support each child’s development and growth. This study utilized a focused ethnographic research design to analyze parents and educators written communications in a non-directed way. Four distinct groups of data were used: (1) e-mail correspondence between parents and educators, (2) e-newsletters sent by the school to parents, (3) semi-structured interviews with parents and educators, and (4) researcher fieldnotes. Major themes identified through the data analysis indicated that the written communications successfully aided in accomplishing specific goals between parents and educators. Centered on the data collection findings, two solutions were proposed: (1) written communications and (2) educator and parent social events. Two important barriers were acknowledged: (1) the increased time commitment required of educators to increase detailed writing communications and (2) the burden and time commitment that will be asked of educators to attend social events outside of school hours. It was recommended that leadership utilize shard leadership in an effort for all parties to provide valuable input into the decision-making process.
Keywords: Early childhood, early childhood education, Montessori Method, Montessori environment, parenting styles, shared leadership