THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PARENTING PROGRAM FOR PARENTS OF STUDENTS FROM LOW-INCOME FAMILY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (ECE) SETTING TO SUPPORT SCHOOL READINESS: A CASE STUDY Brotojoyo Retnowati
Universitas Cendekia Abditama (UCA)
Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ)
Abstract
Parenting programs for parents of young children from low-income families are necessary as many studies have indicated its significance. This research aims to observe how a strategical change in routine parenting programs affect parents^ participation in supporting their children^s development, parent-child attachment, and school readiness. The research method is case study involving 17 parents of nonformal early-learning education students and 20 parents of formal kindergarten students registered at Bimbel Ibu Bangsa (BIB) Tangerang-a non-profit tutoring program serving students and their parents from low-income families free-of-charge since 2015. As part of the programs, the students^ parents were required to participate in online parenting programs which were held every two weeks for sixty-to-ninety minutes (60-90 minutes) in each session. The programs were carried out through zoom meeting from the BIB^s site. Parents or guardians participated in parenting programs were asked to report their parenting practices via Whatsapp groups using chat or voice-note features and to attach their practice^s documentation in photos and/or videos, where applicable. The data, reports, and documentation of parenting practices were analyzed using Miles & Huberman qualitative-data-analysis method, e.g.: data reduction, data display, and verification- in which the results were then explained based on the formulation of the research problems. The results showed that parenting programs using step-by-step technical details or methods has helped most parents in implementing their newly acquired parenting knowledge in supporting children^s development and school readiness and were able to improve parent-child attachments. This implies that technical deliverance of parenting program for parents of low social-economy status shows positive results in terms of ease, practicality, and effectiveness. Further study is needed to develop better model of parenting programs to support the findings.
Keywords: parenting- low-income family- technical parenting- school readiness- parent-child bondings/attachment
