Chapter 5: Parents and staff as co-educators: ‘Parents’ means fathers too
Widen your reading by taking a look at this list of useful journal articles.
Abstract: In the context of the gender revolution, contemporary norms of fatherhood emphasize men’s involvement with their children in addition to their traditional role as financial provider. These ‘new fathers’ are expected to be more equal partners in parenting, nurturing children, and performing both interactive and physical caregiving. However, the roles of provider and involved father may conflict: Whereas the ‘new father’ role requires spending time with children, the ‘provider’ role requires commitment to spending time on the job. Using two waves of the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 1,139), this study examines the relationship between employment and father involvement and whether fathering attitudes moderate that relationship. Results suggest work hours are not strongly related to father involvement. Despite generally long work hours, a subgroup of ‘new fathers’ appear better able to preserve time with children, likely by cutting back on, or incorporating their children into, their leisure time.
Abstract: Until recently, fathers have been underexamined relative to mothers in research on parenting. Fathers in poverty, as well as stepfathers and non-residential fathers, have been a particularly understudied group. This study explores Head Start fathers’ involvement with their children. Fathers are defined to include stepfathers as well as non-residential fathers. Seventy-eight mothers have been interviewed about fathers’ involvement with their children. Mothers generally perceive a modest extent of fathers’ involvement but also report high levels of children’s satisfaction with fathers’ emotional support. Mothers generally report a higher extent of involvement for residential fathers than for non-residential fathers and report higher levels of interaction for stepfathers than for biological fathers. Mothers consistently report that both residential biological fathers and residential stepfathers are more involved than non-residential biological fathers. The findings suggest the importance of continuing to gather data that looks at both residential and non-residential fathers as well as biological fathers and stepfathers.
Abstract: Eight faculty members from five different campuses across the state of Wisconsin collaboratively taught a seminar course in early childhood special education through distance education technologies. A description of the course development and implementation is provided followed by summaries of the qualitative and quantitative analyses of student and faculty data. While the initial purpose for the course was program improvement through shared faculty expertise, comfort and skill in using distance education technologies also grew as a result of the course for both students and faculty. Students positively rated their acquisition of content as a result of the online and in-class activities.