Description

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has gained, since the Council Recommendations on Childcare in 1992 (92/241/EEC), an increasingly prominent position on European policy agendas. Initially, the main rationale for investing in ECEC was driven by socioeconomic concerns about employment, competitiveness and gender equality. Most EU level action was focused on increasing the quantity of childcare places in order to enable parents (mainly mothers) to join the labour market and social inclusion (Commission of the European Communities, 2006a & 2006b). However, over the years the quality of ECEC provision has emerged as a crucial
 factor for promoting children’s cognitive and social development, and, in turn, for enhancing their educational chances in the long term (European Commission, 2011 ).
 The deepening of the discussion quality in ECEC has been largely focusing on the single characteristics of ECEC provisions that are associated with good quality like the educational offer and strategies and the strengthening of the skills (professional development) of ECEC staff.
 At the same time, the successful pedagogical approaches and educational experiences developed in many European countries belonging to the partnership tell us that ECEC quality is also the result of a participatory process that involves on-going negotiations with all stakeholders – children, parents, practitioners, local communities and administrators. (Dahlberg et al ., 2007,European Commission Network on Childcare , 1996b)
 In studies on the early childhood programs, significant positive results of parental involvement were found in helping children transition to kindergarten and succeed during the primary grades and even high school (Barnard, 2004; Carter, 2002). This was especially the case among children in a societal disadvantaged position and those at risk of school failure (Carter, 2002). Children are more motivated to learn and develop key emergent skills that are necessary for success in later life (McWayne et al., 2004). Greater parent involvement in preschool was also associated with stronger pre-literacy skills of children (Arnold, Zeljo, Doctoroff, & Ortiz,
 2008).
 The quality of ECEC depends largely on the system as whole and on the competence of its components like people working with children, families and communities. A competent system includes in fact collaborations between individuals and teams, and institutions (pre-schools, schools, support services for children and families), and competent governance at policy level.(Urban, Vandenbroek, Van Laere et al.)
 In this light, the main problem that the partnership has identified and intends to address stands in the fact that involvement and participation of the parents and carers are scarcely or not sufficiently acknowledged as a key component contributing to quality of ECEC as a competent system.

Goals

1) To identify, test and mainstream best practices and innovative methods of participation particularly in context of diversity (socioeconomic and cultural diversity, minorities, etc);
 2) To improve the teachers competences pertaining strategies and approaches the involvement of parent by learning from the
 experiences of colleagues from other countries in Europe ;
 3) To improve the integration and interaction of the different components of the system (children, practitioners, researchers,
 families, community);
 4) To address participation in ECEC as a process through adequate quality indicators