Family Empowerment: One Outcome of Cooperative Preschool Education

Although longitudinal evaluations of academic preschools have consistently demonstrated significant and substantial long-term benefits for children, the effect of the preschool experience on parents who are required to participate has not been examined. This article reviews a qualitative investigation that explored family empowerment as one outcome of cooperative preschool education. The article highlights the personal growth and acquisition of skills that occurred during the midphase of the empowerment process. Recent efforts to reform the welfare system have popularized the word empowerment. True empowerment is a process of adult development that enables people to discover, develop, and use the power within themselves [Rappaport 1987; Saleebey 1992]. In traditional social work terms, empowerment means helping people help themselves [Simon 1994]. Researchers have identified a series of epigenetic stages that lead to empowerment [Cochran 1987, 1988; Kieffer 1984]. Though the stages may emerge differently in different settings, they typically include changes in self-perception, increased self-confidence, ability to set goals, acquisition of skills to attain goals, and the opportunity for supported practice. The personal characteristics associated with empowerment include the recognition of a need for change, a willingness to work, and the ability to reflect. To promote permanent change, empowerment must be situated within the community [McKnight 1987; Mondros & Wilson 1994]. One of the most important functions of empowerment is the opportunity for people to gain skills that promote self-sufficiency [Ogbu 1978]. These new skills are a form of cultural capital, a resource that includes linguistic style, patterns of behavior, modes of thinking, cultural awareness, academic competency, and general knowledge [Swartz 1990]. According to Bourdieu and Passeron [1977], every class has its own cultural capital; to move from one class to another, people must gain new cultural capital. This article is derived from an exploratory study of parental participation in cooperative preschool education. After a review of the evolution of family programs, it focuses on the acquisition of cultural capital that takes place during the middle stages of the empowerment process. It concludes with a discussion of outcomes, limitations, and implications. Evolution of Family Programs Preschool education began in the United States during the middle of the l9th century, but it first became popular and prevalent during the 1960s when it was considered the most effective weapon in the War on Poverty. Educators and researchers maintained that early childhood education could eradicate the social problems associated with poverty. Although preschool education did not achieve this ambitious goal, long-term positive benefits for children have been well-documented [Berrueta-Clement et al. 1984; Consortium for Longitudinal Studies 1983]. Although the best-known program is Head Start (a national compensatory education project begun in 1965), other programs also emerged during the 1960s. Many had extensive research components. Education was supposed to impart immediate benefits so that "class differences would be eliminated by the time of school entry" [Zigler & Berman 1983: 895]. Most early preschools included didactic parent training programs. Rooted in the cultural deficit model of poverty [Valentine & Stark 1979], they maintained four common assumptions: (1) lowincome families generally fail to prepare their children for successful entry into school; (2) the early years constitute a critical period for cognitive growth; (3) negative family influences usually are not overcome by later schooling; and (4) a "diffusion" effect transmits educational gains to siblings [Clarke-Stewart & Apfel 1978; Goodson & Hess 1976]. Since the 1960s, most preschool programs for disadvantaged families have evolved from parent training to family support programs, providing emotional sustenance, information, and instrumental assistance to families. …