This article was downloaded by: [University of Arizona]On: 18 December 2014, At: 15:01Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Early Years: An International ResearchJournalPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ceye20

Working with parents in early yearssettingsAnita Soni aa Early Years Solutions , Birmingham, UKPublished online: 04 Jul 2011.

To cite this article: Anita Soni (2011) Working with parents in early years settings, Early Years: AnInternational Research Journal, 31:2, 203-204, DOI: 10.1080/09575146.2011.580970

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2011.580970

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BOOK REVIEWS

Working with parents in early years settings, by Ute Ward, Exeter, LearningMatters, 2009, 126 pp., £16.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-84445-268-5

I was keen to review this book to gather more ideas on how to support early years’settings in their work in developing partnerships with parents. This book is boththought provoking and practical. The book is clearly laid out, and each chapterbegins with objectives to show the parameters of the chapter. All chapters containpractical and reflective tasks, detailed case studies and opportunities for self assess-ment; they also give suggested further reading and useful websites to investigate.

The book begins by discussing the role of the parent in a child’s life, includinga useful section on the legal guidance on parental responsibility. The second chapterdiscusses assumptions that may be commonly held about parents and why somegroups of parents are less likely to participate in early years settings. It considersthe stereotypes of parents that can be held by practitioners, such as disinterest or alack of motivation. This could be used to provoke a reflective and stimulating dis-cussion between practitioners!

The following chapters explore the child–parent–early years professional trian-gle, examine partnership working and suggest practical ways parents can beinvolved in an early years setting. This latter chapter also helpfully considers howchildren’s learning can be supported through working with parents in the home orat the setting. A useful addition is a discussion of the role of parent in relation toleadership and management through parent forums, which will be of value to set-tings that want to fully engage and work with parents at all levels. There is a con-structive and practical chapter on groups of parents who may be less likely toaccess early years settings and the associated services.

A chapter that interested me was on the role of parents as learners within set-tings. This chapter explored the needs of adults and identified effective adult learn-ing experiences. This, therefore, enables those working within early years settingsto evaluate the opportunities that are presented to parents as adult learners. Anotherchapter that I found useful considered scenarios where working with parentsbecomes challenging, including issues and practical case studies where parents areworking as volunteers or employees, or are friends. There was a very valuable sec-tion on coping where there are concerns about how a parent is parenting, or about achild’s safety and well-being. These are areas that can be overlooked and it wasrefreshing to read these issues being discussed openly. In addition it was hearteningto read about the importance of supervision for all stakeholders in an early yearssetting including parental volunteers.

This book is useful for students on Early Years foundation degrees, degrees inEarly Childhood Studies and those on pathways towards Early Years Professional

Early YearsVol. 31, No. 2, July 2011, 203–208

ISSN 0957-5146 print/ISSN 1472-4421 onlinehttp://www.informaworld.com

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Status. It is part of a series that explores aspects of achieving Early Years Profes-sional Status. It is also of benefit for those in the early years sector seeking to fur-ther develop their work with parents.

Anita SoniEarly Years Solutions, Birmingham, UKEmail: anita@earlyyearssolutions.co.uk

� 2011, Anita SoniDOI: 10.1080/0975146.2011.580970

Rethinking children and families: the relationship between childhood, familiesand the State, by Nick Frost, London, Continuum, 2011, 122 pp., £19.99(paperback), ISBN 978-1-84706-080-8

This is the fourth book in the series New Childhoods. It aims at a broad audienceincluding students, practitioners and professionals. I was quite excited when Ipicked up the book, which promises to extend readers’ insights on the relationshipbetween childhood, families and the State, and was curious as to how much ofthese complicated matters could be captured in about 120 pages.

The book is clearly structured. The brief introduction (Part 1) is followed bythree chapters, each with a focus on the three key terms of the title: childhood, fam-ilies and the State (Part 2). In Part 3 implications for children’s lives are picked up,each with a focus on children’s agency, children in families and children in (State)care. The book concludes with the claim to reinvent the relationship betweenchildhood, family and the State.

The idea and structure relate to Dencik’s (1989) thinking on the changedrelationship between children, parents and the State, highlighting that it is lessappropriate to subsume children as part of the family because they are increasinglysocialised by state institutions. Nick Frost adapts this to a triangular model ofrelationships between the state, families and children, setting out the strength ofinfluence on each other. In my view the change made to Dencik’s model does nothelp to explore the exercise of power and its unequal deployment, as announced.Overall I would have liked a clearer use of terms. For example, an awareness ofthe difference between family and households might have prevented misinterpreta-tions of statistics (81).

Each of the chapters introduces salient perspectives that contribute to the hotdebates and illustrates and/or backs them up with short excerpts from research. Thebreadth of studies used regarding timing, methods and national context is interestingand invites us to contemplate whether relationships between childhood, parents andthe State are universal or always have to be placed in their historical, social andpolitical context. Each of the examples of research is followed by two activities thatsupport reflection on the study introduced. Each chapter offers overall tasks thatallow connections to be made between the insights from different pieces ofresearch. There is also a brief summary of the chapter, suggestions for further read-ing and a further set of brief description of the studies used in the chapter. Thisstructure may suit the student new to these themes. However, practitioners and pro-

204 Book reviews

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