Preschool education - like all other aspects of our lives - has undergone significant
changes in the last few decades because of the fast and more intense change and
progress of society. The most important shift that has taken place in the field, in
addition to the increased eagerness to identify and ensure high quality of preschool
education, is certainly the increasing involvement of parents and the wider local
community in the process and implementation of programs. With the combination of
the growing influence of social networks and forums, the great role of the public media
and the tendency of the kindergartens to be more open to the public, there is also a
growing interest in the work of preschool teachers by parents and other lay public.
From the point of view of creating a partnership between kindergarten and the parents
and encouraging parental participation, a more active role of parents is welcome and
desirable, but if the discussion among parents takes place online instead of in dialogue
with the preschool teacher and the kindergarten, it can interfere with the preschool
teacher’s work and professional autonomy.
In the research, I wanted to determine the opinion of the media and the lay public about
preschool education and preschool teachers in Slovenia, as well as to what extent the
opinion of the lay public is influenced by information provided by the media and posts
on social networks and forums. I conducted the research through the analysis of online
articles, posts on social networks and forums, and through questionnaires answered
by 90 respondents, 30 of which are parents with children enrolled in kindergartens, 30
are people without children enrolled in kindergartens and 30 preschool teachers. The
survey showed that the opinion of the lay public on the quality of preschool education
and preschool teachers is high, despite the mostly negative information that appears
in the media and on social networks and forums. However, there is a strong influence
of the media in the area of reputation of the preschool teacher’s profession and respect
and trust in him or her by parents. The research is a contribution to the awareness
within the discipline about the influence of the media, social networks and forums on
the opinion of the lay public about preschool education and preschool educators, and
an incentive to find solutions that would raise the reputation of this profession and
improve the image of preschool education in the media.
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