Parent and teacher expectations for developing young children: A cross-cultural comparison between Ireland and Finland

Abstract

SUMMARY The aim of this study was to compare parent and teacher expectations concerning the development and learning of 3 to 5-year-old children cross-culturally using national representative samples in Finland and Ireland. Expectations concerning the following areas were examined: preacademic skills, motor/physical skills, self-expression, language skills, social skills with peers, social skills with adults, self-sufficiency and self-assessment. Respondents were asked to rank the importance of these areas, to predict the expectation preferences from each others point of view and to prioritise developmental and learning responsibilities both from their own point of view and each others. The results show that both in Ireland and Finland teachers consider social skills with peers the most important skills for the development of 4 to 5-year-olds. However, the importance of language and preacademic skills was stressed more among Irish than Finnish teachers. In Finland the importance of self-sufficiency was considered more central. Finnish parents agreed almost totally with teachers' preferences while in Ireland the level of agreement was low. The differences between the countries were even clearer when comparing what teachers perceived as being their responsibilities. Teachers in Ireland felt quite strongly that both preacademic skills and language skills were among their responsibilities while this was not the case in Finland, where preacademic skills were considered the least important.