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Diversity and Choice: The Strengths of Parent Education in Victoria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Jillian Rodd  and
Annette Holland
Jillian Rodd
Affiliation:
School of Early Childhood Studies, University of Melbourne
Annette Holland
Affiliation:
Department of Child Care Studies, Yallourn College of T.A.F.E.
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Participation in parent education appears to be becoming more acceptable and legitimate for many Victorian parents over the past decade. The experience of parenting or ‘being a parent’ has been recognised as potentially confusing and difficult for many adults (Allen and Schultz, 1987: 14). In response to parents' perceived difficulties and expression of need for assistance with the parenting role, professionals who work with children and families have devised a diverse range of approaches to working with parents from informal, often unstructured, individualised, needs based reading and/or discussion type programs to the more formal and structured approaches which employ the often imported pre packaged programs with groups of parents in a variety of settings. Although little systematic information is available concerning the basis and nature of the burgeoning parent education programs currently operating in Victoria, Allen and Schultz (1987) described the current status of parent education in Australia as diverse in theoretical orientations, emphases, topics and settings. However, it appears that many programs currently operating cannot be described as systematic and theoretically based. Fine (1980: 5) defined parent education as “instruction on how to parent” and argued that this definition properly applies to organised, structured programs rather than to more informal discussions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , 1989 , pp. 10 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

References

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