A critical review for the article ‘They only see their

own child’: an interview study of preschool teachers’

perceptions about parents’

EDUC60011&77201 Engaging with Education

Research Assessment 1

Student ID: 10848186

Word count: 1056

 Engaging with Education Research 1000 Words Essay

Hedlin (2019) has explored the relationship or interaction between preschool teachers and
home from teachers’ perspectives. This research tends to begin with an inductive perspective
to collect 30 Swedish qualified preschool teachers’ perceptions about parents, using a semi-
structured interview. Through cautious thematic analysis, the increasing demands and
participation of parents in school and the difficulties in dealing with the teacher-parent
relationships have become the key findings of this study. As a result, the researcher draws a
conclusion that, due to different roles in relation to the child, preschool teachers need a
delicate balance when coping with their relationship with parents.

Overall, there are lots of strengths being shown in this journal article. The whole article tries
to fill up the gap in the existing research on home-school cooperation of paying attention to
the views of preschool teachers, which has research significance. Moreover, the thick
contextual description of the Swedish educational environment also makes the transferability
of this research enhanced (Shenton, 2004). However, as the key to improving the
trustworthiness of the research, there are some points worthy of careful review regarding the
author's handling of the research process and data interpretation (Merriam and Grenier, 2019,
p.22). Thus, the following essay will critically review Hedlin’s (2019) work from several
aspects and give some constructive suggestions.

Firstly, for the logic of the argument, the author's unclear main argument leads to the
confusion of the structure of the whole article, which is mainly reflected in two aspects. For
one, there are some not-so-relevant connections between the literature review and the
research aim. Merriam and Grenier, (2019, pp.20) suggest that literature review, as an
important theoretical framework, plays an important role in guiding the direction of the whole
research. Nevertheless, for example, in the literature review, Hedlin (2019) mentioned the
lack of effective training as one of the reasons for teachers’ difficulties in cooperating with
parents. But this point of view is not reviewed in the later article, which might be off-topic.
That is, this part of the literature review is actually invalid, which may further threaten the
article credibility. For another, untargeted research questions make it difficult to develop the
author’s own views. Learned from Miles (et al, 2014, pp.36-37), for most researchers, a loose

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 Engaging with Education Research 1000 Words Essay

research design that emphasizes discovering research questions in the process might be time-
consuming but less efficient. Guided by two too general interview questions, Hedlin (2019)
seems to be inclined to continuously confirm the previous ones rather than present his own
opinions, and develop previous research. To promote above two problems, a tighter design
supported by more targeted literature reviews and more purpose-oriented interview questions
should be applied, so that improve the logicality and practical value of the research (Miles, et
al, 2014, pp.36-37).

In terms of methodology adoption, the author has chosen an appropriate qualitative research
method of semi-structural interview while ignoring the description of the sample selection
process, which may potentially weaken the transferability and dependability of the research.
Merriam and Tisdell (2016, pp.17-18) point out that a rich description of participants is
necessary to serve the descriptive nature and trustworthiness of a qualitative research.
Similarly, Poggenpoel and Myburgh (2003) also present that insufficient demographic data
towards participants would undermine the transferability of the findings. Looking back,
Hedlin (2019) did not mention too much about the selection criteria and process for his
participants. Also, there is no participants’ working background mentioned in this research
although it is relatively important as the difference between public and private school have
been referred to earlier. In other words, the ambiguous description of interviewees might
confuse readers. Yet, as a reference, another similar research investigating preschool teachers’
attitudes towards their professional environment provides a detailed demographic description
of participants, which could greatly enhance the dependability of the research (Veisson and
Kabaday, 2018). Learning from it, to improve the external validity of the research, more
detailed and relevant participants information could be presented next time.

Finally, bias happening in the research process should be taken into consideration seriously as
it affects the confirmability and credibility of the findings (Shenton, 2004). Such drawbacks
from bias could be identified in Hedlin’s (2019) work. From the researchers’ perspective, this
study is completed by only one researcher, which might limit its confirmability. According to
Poggenpoel and Myburgh (2003), even for those researchers who have rich experience, they

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also need some external help such as critical peer review of their research process. It aims to
avoid researchers being constrained by their own understanding of the case, thereby forming
investigator bias (Chenail, 2011). Therefore, one possible improvement could be asking for
some critical evaluation from trustworthy people during the research process. As for
participants' perspective, the data collection method of the one-time interview in this research
could cause subject bias potentially, so that poses risks to research credibility. Miles (et al,
2014, pp.260-270) argues that lots of participants tend to hide their inner thought and choose
some decent answer during the interview, due to their defensive mind. Thus, in order to
improve that, ethnography, as a commonly used approach in the educational field, which
requires researchers to spend time engaging in the culture and life of the research
participants, could be applied as a complement to the semi-structural interview (Edmonds and
Kennedy, 2017, pp.152-153). By doing so, researchers could build a trusting relationship with
the interviewees and further be able to gain their ‘real voice’.

In summary, Hedlin has successfully found the gaps in the existing research and adopts
appropriate qualitative research methods to ensure the value of the research direction.
Meanwhile, the detailed description of the research context also enhances the transferability
of this work. However, some problems caused by unclear arguments, the fuzziness of the
research process, and bias are worth pondering. Several key points for improvement are, first,
before designing the research process, it is suggested that researchers should clarify their own
views through extensive literature review, and carry out closer research design. Secondly, the
detailed description of the research process and the relevant demographic context of the
participants needs to be emphasized when writhing. Finally, the use of ethnographic methods
and multi-party review is also a wise choice to minimize bias. Only by accomplishing the
above points, could the trustworthiness of the whole article be comprehensively improved,
and further an article that contributes to the research field can be developed.

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Reference List:

Chenail, R.J. (2011). ‘Interviewing the investigator: Strategies for addressing instrumentation
and researcher bias concerns in qualitative research’, Qualitative report, 16(1), pp.255–
262. [Online]. Available at: https://go-gale-com.manchester.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?
p=AONE&u=jrycal5&id=GALE|A251725301&v=2.1&it=r (Accessed: 9 November
2021)

Edmonds, W. and Kennedy, T. (2017). An Applied Guide to Research Designs: Quantitative,

Qualitative, and Mixed Methods. 2nd edn. SAGE Publications. [Online]. Available at:
https://www-doi-org.manchester.idm.oclc.org/10.4135/9781071802779 (Accessed: 8
November 2021)

Hedlin, M. (2019). ‘‘They only see their own child’: an interview study of preschool teachers’
perceptions about parents’, Early child development and care, 189(11), pp.1776–1785.
[Online]. Available at:
https://www-tandfonline-com.manchester.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1080/03004430.2017.
1412955 (Accessed:1 November 2021)

Merriam, S.B. and Grenier, R.S. (2019). Qualitative research in practice: examples for
discussion and analysis. 2nd edn. Jossey-Bass. [Online]. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/manchester/reader.action?docID=5630257
(Accessed: 12 November 2021)

Merriam, S.B. and Tisdell, E.J. (2016). Qualitative research: a guide to design and
implementation. 4th edn. John Wiley & Sons. [Online]. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/manchester/reader.action?docID=2089475
(Accessed: 6 November 2021)

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M. and Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods
sourcebook. 3rd edn. London, United Kingdom: SAGE.

Poggenpoel, M., and Myburgh, S. (2003). ‘The researcher as research instrument in

educational research: A possible threat to trustworthiness?’, Education, 124(2), pp.418-
21, [Online]. Available at: https://go-gale-com.manchester.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?
p=AONE&u=jrycal5&id=GALE%7CA251725301&v=2.1&it=r (Accessed: 9
November 2021)

Shenton, A.K. (2004). ‘Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research

projects’, Education for Information, 22 (2), pp.63–75. [Online]. Available at:
https://content.iospress.com/articles/education-for-information/efi00778 (Accessed: 3
November 2021)

Veisson, M. and Kabaday, A. (2018). ‘Exploring the Preschool Teachers’ Views on

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Professionalism, Quality of Education and Sustainability: International Study in Estonia

and Turkey’, Journal of teacher education for sustainability, 20(2), pp.5–18. [Online].
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origsite=primo (Accessed: 5 November 2021)

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