Fundamental Changes and Their Impact on the Concept of Children's Education from Parents' Interpretations

Abstract

Education as a purposeful activity has its complexities and goals, and its process should be equipped with pedagogical principles. In the presented study, based on the authors' interviews with the subjects, the authors’ aim is to identify the prevailing educational views of parents in the upbringing of their children; the views of grandparents in the upbringing of their grandchildren, and the critical moments influencing their conscious decision-making and behaviour related to their beliefs as parents and grandparents. Qualitative research tools were used to obtain research material, namely unstructured and subsequently semi-structured interviews. The strategy of the constant comparison method was applied in elaborating the research material. The research was carried out in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and was attended by parents and grandparents (total number: 11) of children and grandchildren aged 2-6 years. The findings show that parents' and grandparents' beliefs about the definition and meaning of education coincide in many aspects. On the other hand, they differ significantly in other aspects, such as destructive influences on the child or the beginning of education. From the theory derived from the research, the fact emerges that the belief and the forming educational thinking of the subjects of the research are influenced by the specific experience in raising their children and, at the same time, the education experienced during childhood. This fact is primarily based on the identified interrelationships between the individual categories of the investigated phenomena, while it is based exclusively on the statements of the subjects of this longitudinal research.