If I was conducting research that benefited children and families, I would conduct an observation based research of the interaction of fathers and their children. I would conduct this research because I have seen throughout my years teaching in the early childhood field the lack of involvement many fathers have in their child's day to day life. Observing them will help answer questions such as;
1. Do children that have fathers that are involved or not involved in their life perform better at school?
2. Do children that have fathers that are involved or not involved in their day to day life behave better?
3. How do fathers communicate with their children at home?
4. Do children have better relationships overall with fathers that live with them or without them?
The positive contribution would be to give fathers the information to show how their lack of involvement with their child can hurt them. I would also give these fathers information on how to become involved on a day to day basis.
There are many fathers that for different reasons do not even know the name of their child's teacher. I think that all they need is to have an understanding of the importance of day to day interactions with their child. Giving them resources will point them in the right direction.
Hi Lisa
ReplyDeleteI like how you outlined your study with questions, as studies should be looking for an answer to why a variable is important in a situation. The scope of your research would be quite wide though, as it seems that you could be conducting four separate experiments as each variable may or may not be significant to the child's school or home life. I also like that if you attained the results that you hope for that you included the desire to disseminate this information to families and father's in particular.
Carolyn
Lisa, that is a good one to do research on because children are affected by their father's that do not come and support them. I see alot of fathers at my school that do not come anr support their children in what they do. I feel very sad for them. I also seen mothers that do not support their children at school. i had a child cry because nobody did not come for her so I told her that I am her for you baby and your mom might had something to do today maybe she come next time.
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeleteWe have a "lunch with dad" every year at our preschool and it is probably the event the children get the most excited about. The dads are only there a half hour to eat lunch and the children show them around the classroom. They love showing their dads what they do and it means so much that their dads make the time to participate. They crave that attention from their dads. Dads do play a significant role in their child's life. I think your research would be very insightful. Men, in general, have a different effect on young children. Whenever we have a male guest speaker or a male staff member from the church comes to visit, they have the children;s attention immediately - maybe because they do not have as many opportunities to interact with men? Interesting topic!
Lisa that sound like an interesting topic. In the early childhood field you do see a lot of children who comes from a single parent family (mothers). This would be a topic that would catch a lot of educators attention especially those in the early childhood field.
ReplyDelete