Abstract:

Stakeholders have for several decades been concerned about facilitating successful start to school. The structure of the education system varies from country to country, school starting ages, circumstances with regard to starting primary school, goals and tasks assigned by the regulation of curricular content to institutions thus vary a lot around the world.

In Hungary, kindergarten education is compulsory for all children past the age of three, for four hours a day. Early childhood education pedagogy has movement and play as its core elements. In the year when children turn six years of age by 31 August, they reach the age for compulsory school education. The transition for future first-graders into the school system takes place in a critical stage of child development. It has long been known that children start school at different levels of development (Nagy, 1980). Furthermore, a number of differences can be identified between kindergarten and primary school.

A large number of studies (Takriti, 2020) have shown that it is essential to better understand the stakeholders’ perceptions of transition to school, as the information thus obtained can be used to ease the transition process. In Hungary, it is not known whether there exist differences in the various stakeholders’ perceptions of the responsibilities expected of one another. For a thorough investigation of the issue, a self-developed online questionnaire was used to collect data from kindergarten educators (N=359), primary school teachers (N=380) and parents of first graders (N=226).

According to the results of the analysis of variance, the stakeholders surveyed expected kindergarten educators to fulfil different responsibilities. More primary school teachers and kindergarten educators than parents expected kindergarten educators to complete more duties (e.g. regular conversations with children about starting school). More parents and primary school teachers expected kindergarten educators to perform certain duties, while they did not believe that it was their job (e.g. providing information in writing to future primary school teachers on the developmental status of children).

The opinions of the stakeholders compared about the responsibilities of primary school teachers also varied widely. Less parents than kindergarten educators and primary school teachers ascribed the duties referred above to primary school teachers. However, in accordance with the replies received, primary school teachers took on more responsibilities, while kindergarten educators attributed less duties to them (e.g. visiting kindergartens).

The stakeholders surveyed also had different expectations of parents. The majority of the primary school teachers questioned ascribed most duties to parents, while parents and kindergarten educators attributed less responsibilities to parents (e.g. inquiring kindergarten educators about children’s developmental status). Only one parental duty was attributed by more parents to themselves than by kindergarten educators and primary school teachers: discussing the differences between kindergarten and school with children in a playful manner.

The results confirm that stakeholders expect different responsibilities of one another and of themselves in facilitating the transition. The research will help identify expectations of the various stakeholders and offer a space for educators, teachers and researchers to reflect upon the findings.

Keywords:

Kindergarten school transition, transition into primary school, starting primary school, stakeholders’ views.