Dr Mary O'Kane: How Can We Challenge Thinking on Collaborative Partnerships with Children and Families?

Early Childhood Education Expert Dr Mary O’Kane will bring a thought-provoking discussion to life at Portobello Insitute’s next early years webinar.  

Dr O’Kane has specifically designed this informative webinar for early years professionals.

She aims to challenge the thinking around collaborations with parents, children and families and open new perspectives for practitioners.  

You can register for free here.

Ahead of the webinar, Dr O’Kane shared some insights around what to expect.  

“This won’t be a session of practical tips; I am approaching this topic through an ecological lens. I want to focus on the wider impact of societal expectations on parents today and the impact that these expectations have on parenting and therefore on children’s development,” she said.  

Her discussion will navigate topics such as parenting and the search for perfection, the impact of this on children today, US and Irish case studies, the importance of play and the role of the educator throughout all of this, particularly in collaborating with and reassuring parents in their roles. 

“We will explore how challenging parenting can be and the idea of perfection and how the need to be perfect impacts on the way people parent and as an educator how it is important to acknowledge that and to think about that.  

“One of the reasons parents can be hard to reach is we make assumptions as educators; we make assumptions about their parenting so I want to challenge them on that as well and remind them how important it is not to make assumptions and sometimes to look behind the parent's behaviour just as we would look behind the behaviour of a child,” she said.   

If you want to push yourself and challenge your thinking about your role as a practitioner, setting owner, student or academic in early childhood care and education, this webinar is for you.  

You can register for free here.

If you are new to portobello Insitute's Early Years Department's webinar series you can catch up on our YouTube channel with our previous expert speakers:

Dr Judith Butler on Trauma-Sensitive and Relationship-Based Approaches in ECEC. 

Tim Gill on Risk in Outdoor Learning and Play.

Nóirín Hayes on Embracing a Nurturing Pedagogy.