Evaluation of family involvement in preschool education according to teachers' views

Families are an important source of power in education. Understanding family participation can be used to ensure child-family-school interaction, which are the three basic elements of education, and to increase the quality of education. The aim of this study is to describe the experiences of preschool teachers towards family participation. This study was designed in a basic qualitative research model. In the 2024-2025 academic year, 20 preschool teachers working in private and public institutions in a province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region participated in the study. Semi-structured interview and document analysis were used as data collection tools. The data were descriptive analysis and hand-coded. Based on the interview questions, sub-themes of opinions on family participation, practices within the scope of family participation, relations with families and factors affecting family participation were created. As a result of the research; Family participation is defined as a process in which the family and the teacher cooperate in the most basic way. In addition, it has been revealed that the non-participation and indifference of families, the inadequacy of physical conditions and the fact that families do not value family participation activities are the situations that make family participation difficult. It has been found that the support of the school administration, communication with the parents, the transportation of the parents to the school and the appropriate physical conditions are the situations that facilitate family participation. In order to ensure family participation, it is necessary to meet the needs of pre-school education and teachers.