Children living in economic hardship : Preschool teachers' point of view

This study aims to find more knowledge about preschool teachers’ point of view on the situation of children living in economic hardship and how it affects them at the preschool. With economic hardship becoming more frequent and common amongst families with young children we find the subject important and in need of more attention. Studies have proven the negative effects of poverty on children’s development and health and since the preschool is a big part of children’s everyday life the study aims to see what perspectives practitioners have on the issue and how they plan activities and learning situations based on the needs of these children. What pre-conditions the preschool teachers need is also of great signifigcance to the study. Earlier research articles are pointing out the negative effects of poverty, the importance of preschool practitioners attitudes towards these choldren and effects of society’s norms and how they create abnormality for children. Interview is used as a method to gather the preschool teachers’ opinions, thoughts and experiences of the subject. The results showed that preschool teachers had different views, and experiences, on how the children were affected in preschool by the family’s economic hardship. They also had both different and similar opinions on how the preschool could help these children and their parents as well as similar views on how the preschool could improve their resources to benefit and support children in economic hardship at the preschool. Further broad and longitudinal research in this area is needed