"Argh, even my kid is digitalised!" Commercial apps' effect on parent-teacher communication

Abstract

Researchers argue that Norwegian kindergarten teachers’ autonomy and professional latitude today are under pressure as the sector’s market orientation has led kindergartens to compete over customers. This can alter parent–teacher communication, enhance parent influence, and reduce pedagogical autonomy, as kindergartens may feel obliged to cater to their wishes. New communication apps can also contribute to this development as they grant parents realtime insight into everyday activities, potentially affecting the communication between parents and kindergarten teachers. This article explores variations in communication between two kindergartens with different communication practices towards parents. My findings suggest that apps centralise information from the kindergarten, make it more available for parents, and release time for more substantial face-to-face interactions, benefiting parent–teacher communication. No app communication causes some parents to miss crucial information because of some communication obstruction. However, the noapp approach generates more frequent face-to-face interactions, which offer the actors access to relational situations of information exchange, potentially benefitting the communication.