Parental scaffolding: a case study of low-income families at a children's museum

"This study examines scaffolding behaviors that low-income parents used in a children’s museum. The primary research question is ""How might low-income parents scaffold their preschool-aged children in an early childhood exhibition in a children’s museum?"" with a supporting question of ""How is parental scaffolding facilitated or constrained by the exhibit environment and the interpretive programs?"" Drawing upon the case study method, the Playscape at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis was selected as the intrinsic and instrumental case of the study. The study involved interviews and naturalistic observations with the museum staff and twelve dyads of low-income, who were members of the Access Pass program in Indianapolis. In addition, three families made repeated visits to the Playscape within 5 months from the first visit and participated in in-depth interviews regarding their museum experiences. The findings show that the low-income parents used scaffolding behaviors with their children at the exhibit areas where problem-solving tasks were explicitly pre-defined. More importantly, they used a wide range of learning and skill-enhancing behaviors to instill school readiness skills, particularly language development, early literacy, social skills, and general knowledge. The results also reveal that parents' agendas and the perceptions of their roles and children's learning differed from the museum staff's expectations of the parental roles in the exhibition and their goal of increasing parental involvement in children’s play."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Sriprachya-anunt, Wasana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hetrick, Laura J
• Stake, Robert E.
• Rosenthal, Lisa
• Smith, Stephanie C
• Wood, Elizabeth

• Parental scaffolding
• scaffolding
• preschoolers
• parental involvement
• children’s museum
• early childhood education
• museum learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Wasana Sriprachya-anunt

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90508

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90508