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Lunch will be provided as part of this event. Please note that all that our food is prepared in kitchens that contain gluten, nuts and other allergens. We cannot completely guarantee that there is no risk of cross contamination. Please ensure you have notified the event organisers of any specific dietary requirements in advance of the event.
The day-to-day lived experiences of low-income families are often omitted in social research due to the reluctance of such families to participate (Hoskins et al, 2022; Xu et al, 2021; Wainwright and Hoskins, 2021), stemming from concerns about providing ethical consent, class stigma and fear of losing their children (Wilson and McGuire, 2021) amongst other complex reasons. These families are therefore hard to reach and this gap in the literature is particularly acute when it comes to low-income families from racialised minority backgrounds (Brannon et al, 2013). Without the views and perspectives of these marginalised families, policy and practice, including those linked to Froebelian philosophy cannot fully address their needs or tackle social inequalities more broadly (Chlong and Dimmock, 2020).
In this dissemination event, findings will be shared from a recent project funded by the Froebel Trust; exploring the potential of Froebelian philosophy to support and engage low-income families in ways that matter to them. Working in partnerships with HomeStart (a UK charity) and a Nottingham school, participants were invited over a four-week period, to reflect on and consider the possibility of enacting Froebel’s ideas in relation to their involvement in play with their child/children. Families were interviewed to discuss experiences, perceptions and understandings of Froebelian play.
The findings show that parents engage with a Froebelian approach without naming and identify it explicitly. Froebelian principles need to be made more inclusive to low-income families. The findings are relevant to practitioners as they provide empirical evidence of a diverse group of parents’ perspectives on play to reveal areas where they could learn from parents/carers to extend play opportunities in the home. The findings are relevant to policy as they identify policy change needed to reduce the effects of socio-economic disadvantage to low-income families with young children.
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