Abstract:

Realising how important it is to encourage learning, parents are getting more involved in their kids' education. Parents are becoming more involved in their children's education and stepping away from more conventional duties like helping out in classrooms. Even when they are unable to be physically present, parents may now remain aware and involved in their children's education through digital platforms and technologies. On the other hand, holistic development, including social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth, is given priority in play-based learning. Children are allowed to take charge of their education and pursue their interests through a play-based learning approach. Through play-based learning, parents encourage and reinforce learning at home, which can result in better academic success. However, in the South African context, it is not very clear how Early Childhood Development (ECD) sites encourage parental involvement and deliver transformative play-based learning. Thus, this gap in the literature necessitated this research. All of the practitioners in all of the ECD sites in the Free State Province of South Africa made up the population of this study, which used a convergent mixed methods research design. A proportionate stratified random selection strategy was used to draw 172 practitioners from this population. A semi-structured interview guide, a structured questionnaire, and an observational checklist were used to gather the data needed for the study. The Department of Education and the University of the Free State's Committee on Research Ethics granted the researchers ethical clearance approval for both the primary fieldwork and the pilot testing before the start of data collection. UFS-HSD2024/1270 is the Ethical Clearance Reference Number. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the quantitative data, while ATLAS.ti was used to analyse the qualitative data. The quantitative findings showed that there is a high level of parental involvement and delivery of transformative, high-quality, play-based early learning in the ECD sites managed by Tshepang Educare Trust and Ntataise Training and Resource Centre in the Free State Province. However, for the ECD sites managed by Lesedi Educare Association, there is low level of delivery of transformative, high-quality play-based early learning in the ECD sites with respect to helping preschoolers to trace vowel shapes and write vowels step by step, helping preschoolers to trace consonant shapes and write consonants step by step. Buttressing this result, the qualitative finding shows that the practitioners Tshepang Educare Trust and Ntataise Training and Resource Centre maintain a high level of delivery of transformative, high-quality, play-based early learning at their various ECD sites. Besides, there is a high level of growth of parental involvement in ECD sites managed by Tshepang Educare Trust and Ntataise Training and Resource Centre. These findings imply that children at the ECD sites managed by Lesedi Educare Association may not enjoy a high level of growth of parental involvement and delivery of play-based learning. Thus, the researchers recommend that efforts should be made by the South African Education Authority to ensure that the policy framework on parental involvement is properly implemented at the ECD sites managed by the Lesedi Educare Association.

Keywords:

Early childhood development, Transformative play-based learning, Parental involvement, Practitioners.