New Kiwis, Diverse Families: Migrant and former refugee families talk about their early childhood care and education needs

New Kiwis, Diverse Families (pdf)
01 Dec 2008
pdf

This Families Commission report is based on focus groups with six groups of parents, mostly mothers, from differing migrant and refugee communities from non-English speaking backgrounds about their needs and preferences for early childhood education and care (ECE).

The study found that refugee and migrant families had a number of unmet needs for support for childcare in the context of:

  • pressing needs for refugee parents to acquire basic education and English proficiency;
  • a shortage of ECE places generally; and widespread concern about the affordability of ECE.

It highlighted ECE curriculum needs associated with preservation of children’s heritage languages; the need for more information on ECE approaches and opportunities in New Zealand; and the need to understand more about the contribution to childcare of other family members.

 

Purpose

In 2006/07 the Families Commission consulted migrant and refugee families about their needs. This consultation highlighted a need to explore options for ECE to respond to the distinctive requirements of these families, particularly:

  •  cultural and integration needs of families, and the need for childcare to help parents access English language learning,
  •  needs that arose for some migrant and refugee families from the lack of informal support for childcare from close family or friends.

The Families Commission was particularly interested in filling gaps in both existing research evidence and planned research initiatives on the ECE needs of migrant and refugee families3 as part of its Even up programme of work, aimed at supporting changes to make life easier for families.

Methodology

This small-scale qualitative study provided an initial exploration of migrant and refugee families’ preferences and priorities for ECE. It was carried out by a social geographer with cross-cultural research experience working with refugee communities, who is the mother of a pre-school child. She was supported by a researcher and project manager from the Families Commission who is a grandmother. Both researchers are Päkehä.

The particular cultural or ethnic communities approached for inclusion in the research were recommended by key informants either because their voices had rarely, if ever, been heard, or because they came from communities that faced extra challenges settling in New Zealand. Within each community, local leaders or resource people recruited parents with pre-school children to participate in a focus group and explained the research and its intended outcomes. They arranged a suitable location and in some cases provided transport for participating parents to attend the focus group.

There were six focus groups:

  •  seven pan-ethnic Muslim women who assembled at a community centre in Auckland for a regular Islamic playgroup
  •  six (Mandarin-speaking) Chinese and Taiwanese mothers and one Japanese father from Hamilton
  •  eight Russian mothers who take their children to an established, full-immersion Russian community kindergarten on Saturday mornings in Christchurch 
  •  four mothers and one father of Eritrean families from across the Wellington region
  •  eight Sudanese mothers from Lower Hutt
  •  eight Assyrian (Christian Iraqi) mothers from Wellington.

At each focus group, participating parents were asked about:

  • their family contexts and history of living and working in New Zealand
  • their current ECE arrangements and needs (including what support they relied on from outside the home, including formal centres, playgroups, family members and friends)
  • the impact of these arrangements on individual family members
  • their experiences of and priorities for ECE
  • their ideal ECE arrangements
  • the reasons why their ideal arrangements are not possible now (where appropriate).

To facilitate in-depth discussion, a participatory diagramming method4 was employed in four of the six groups. In these cases, parents produced diagrams as a starting point for further discussion about their current situation, and their ideal scenario for the care and education of their pre-schoolers. This method supported the generation and documentation of parents’ realities in terms that were most relevant to them and their own cultural contexts. The method also enabled parents still learning to speak English to participate alongside more confident members of their communities.

There were two groups where the parents simply engaged in a focused discussion. In one case, this was because the group preferred to just talk. In the other, it was because the large number of small babies sitting on their mothers’ knees prevented the mothers from drawing. Parents were informed of the ethical procedures governing the research in terms of the collection, storage, attribution and dissemination of the information. Four of the six groups gave permission to tape-record their discussions, and in the other two groups, one of the researchers took detailed notes.

Parents in some groups also gave permission for their diagrams and for photographs of the focus groups to be used in this report, and other papers and publications. In one group, a professional interpreter supported the Families Commission researchers. In the other groups, either the organiser of the group (who happened to be a qualified interpreter on two occasions), or a person with whom the group felt comfortable, provided additional support as needed. Most participants chose to speak in English for the majority of their discussion. Refreshments and childcare (where needed) were provided for all groups, and parents received a koha as thanks for their involvement.

In addition to the focus groups, two key informants were interviewed: a representative of the Wellington Islamic Community, and the organiser of the pan-ethnic Muslim focus group in Auckland, both of whom were involved in efforts to establish Islamic ECE centres in their communities. Finally, a focus group was held with three Wellington-based ECE experts who had experience of the needs of migrant and refugee communities. This allowed a deeper probing of issues raised by parents and provided another means of interpreting focus group findings. They, too, were informed of the ethical procedures, and gave permission for their voices to be integrated into the report and associated documents. Once focus groups were completed, transcripts were made of the audio-recordings and key themes were analysed. Quotations from parents and ECE experts were then selected to illustrate the key themes and to provide insights into the similarities and differences within and between participating families and communities.

Key Results

This study confirmed findings of earlier Families Commission work that identified unmet needs of refugee and migrant families for support for childcare in the context of:

  •  pressing needs for refugee parents particularly to acquire basic education and English proficiency to be able to function in New Zealand society and as a precursor to obtaining paid employment > a shortage of ECE places generally and services for sufficient numbers of hours to meet the needs of parents wishing to undertake paid work or study
  •  widespread concerns about the affordability of ECE, especially for children under the age of three, for families with more than one dependent child and for families on low incomes.

This study also highlighted ECE curriculum needs associated with the preservation of children’s heritage languages, which research participants indicated was important for maintaining intergenerational connections within families. The group of ECE experts also related the preservation of children’s heritage languages to improved educational outcomes generally.

Some of the findings about parents’ preferences for providing the care and education of their pre-school children themselves, and some of their concerns about what is (or is not) provided in ECE centres, point to a need for some ECE providers to work more inclusively with parents. This is to ensure parents, especially parents who are unfamiliar with the New Zealand system, have good information about:

  • all of the opportunities available for the care and education of their pre-school children
  • the approach taken to ECE in New Zealand and the reasons for it
  • their opportunities as parents to be actively involved in their child’s ECE if they wish.

The research also highlights the need to understand more about the contribution to childcare of older family members, such as grandmothers, and older children within large families, and the impact this has on them.

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