THE COMMUNICATION POLICY OF THE KINDERGARTEN – REALITY AND PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Constant interaction with the parent community and the creation of conditions for their active inclusion in the activities of the kindergarten is the key to an effective partnership in creating trust between contact groups and shared responsibility in developing children's knowledge and skills, supporting their personal development and ensuring equal access to pre-school education. Achieving a fruitful interaction between the family and the kindergarten is a problem for Bulgarian preschool education. Although meetings between teachers and parents are daily, activity and especially initiative on the part of parents is not always observed. Not all parents are involved in their children's education and their adaptation to the educational environment. In this context, the policies of the kindergarten to ensure active cooperation between the family and the institution are of interest to the research practice, including the planned measures and activities to attract the parent community into the life of the institution, the implemented activities to adapt the children to the environment in the kindergarten with the participation of the parents, the implemented joint initiatives with them, etc. The article presents a study of developed models for working with families and children in 36 kindergartens from seven administrative districts in Bulgaria, namely Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Pleven, Ruse, Silistra, Shumen. The preschool organizations were selected on a random basis and include those operating in different types and sizes of settlements. A content analysis and a comparative analysis of institutional documents providing information on the policies developed in the kindergarten for cooperation with parents were carried out. Data from the official websites of preschool institutions were used. The documents cover the strategies for the development of preschool educational organizations and the established program systems as part of the strategies, regulations for their activities and other plans and programs in the context of the subject and in relation to the specific features of the particular kindergarten. The conclusions that follow from the conducted study are about insufficient publicity of the intended forms of interaction with parents, despite the developed models for working with families and children in the period of adaptation from the family environment to the kindergarten by 72.22% of the studied kindergartens. Most preschool educational institutions emphasize in their plans and programs the informing parents about the achievements, adaptation, obstacles and difficulties in the individual development of children, participation of parents in pedagogical situations and holidays of groups or the institution, counseling parents, and, to a lesser degree any specific activities related to the support of children's personal development, research of parental opinion, joint activities for the prevention of early dropping out of the education system, negative manifestations, bullying and aggression and others, for which they are given recommendations for enabling cooperation.