Rethinking the everyday interactions between children, fathers and teachers in contemporary ECEC settings. A preliminary study in an Italian Infant-Toddler Center.

The research is an extension of a previous work on interactions between children, parents and teachers during the daily transitions from home to the infant-toddler center (Cescato, 2012), with a particular focus on the figure of fathers. The aims of this preliminary study include: observing the various verbal and non-verbal interactions between fathers, children and teachers in the infant-toddler center; exploring the fathers’ and teachers’ perspectives on how to stay together and separate; enlarging our knowledge on the impact of an increasing presence of fathers in contemporary ECEC-settings. Many psychological studies focused on the role of fathers, also revealing differences between maternal and paternal styles. Few have explored these dimensions from a pedagogical point of view, analyzing the specificity of paternal behaviors and ideas, in the encounter with the childhood services. The study refers to: the ecology of transitions (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), studies on the father-children relation (Lamb, 1986; Kyle, Pruett, 1998), the microanalysis of adults-children interactions (Stern, 1995; Fivaz et al.1999). A multimethod approach combined data from video-observations, interviews and focus groups with fathers and teachers. Ethics committee approvals included parents and teachers informed consent for audio-videotaping. Findings include: some gender specificities in the way in which fathers act and think about their role in educating their children; new questions, on the part of teachers, about their everyday practices and interactions with families. Implications include the need to develop new methods for involving fathers and teachers in experiences of analysis, dialogue, reflection, and de-automatization of their practices and implicit pedagogies.