Co-responsibility and educational care of parents: a research crossed by the pandemic

Abstract

The paper focuses on early childhood educators as possible facilitators of educational co-responsibility with families and, therefore, of inclusive educating communities, according to the PNRR. A research-training with educators of Palermo, started before the pandemic and then reformulated, is presented. During this research, in 2019, a questionnaire was administered to investigate three areas from which, according to the literature, obstacles to an effective educational alliance often arise: pre-understandings on the family education of educators, representations of parents and ideas of co-responsibility. In 2022, an online questionnaire similar to the first was administered, also exploring the lived-experiences related to the pandemic. The comparative analysis, carried out with qualitative phenomenological methodology, reveals changes in all the areas investigated. Moreover, the need for educational support of parents perceived by educators entails their need to be formed to respond to it. Hence the requirement of an adequate training in family pedagogy to implement educators’ professionalism clearly emerges.