The Turkish Preservice Preschool Teachers’ Views on Parenting

In this study, the senior students’ views on parenting were studied as a part of the required Parent Education course offered in the last year of a preschool education undergrad program in Malatya, Turkey. The participants were 70 senior students receiving the course and they completed the assignments by answering questions related with parenting. The data were analyzed with the qualitative techniques. As a result, the general description of parenting, the ideal and expected parent portraits described by the participants revolved around the change in parenting and the students showed a strong belief about the effectiveness of parent education and involvement in preschool education. This study helped the participants to improve their insights by making connections between theory and practice about parenting in preschool period and significant results and implications were revealed for the researchers and practitioners.