Exploring attachment bonds between kindergarten students and educators: a creative appreciative inquiry

Abstract

This dissertation is a Creative Appreciative Inquiry research study that explores attachment bonds created between kindergarten students and educators. Rooted in the theoretical contexts of Attachment Theory and Social Constructivism, this study highlights the positive elements that contribute to the reciprocal relational connections educators and students offer one another that creates an environment that feels safe for children to thrive. Two research questions were the basis for exploring the topic of educator-child attachment: (1) What do kindergarten students identify as being helpful in the formal education system to increase feelings of safety and care while away from their caregivers?; and (2) how do kindergarten teaching teams in the formal education setting create and sustain feelings of safety and care in their students while they are away from their caregivers? The Appreciative Inquiry methodology that was utilized in this research connected all participants with the researcher on a deep level; valuing participants’ expertise in their own experiences and seeing the need to rise to the challenge of hearing the voices of everyone involved. A kindergarten classroom in Northern Ontario was the site of data collection where two educators (the classroom teacher and Early Childhood Educator), 12 kindergarten students, and five caregivers participated in two cycles of the 4D model in Appreciative Inquiry. Methods included classroom observations (6), semi-structured interviews with the education team (3), student classroom brainstorming sessions (2), student draw-and-tell exercises (2), and semi-structured interviews with caregivers (6). Analysis of the data was carried out using a reflexive thematic analysis and was assisted by NVivo software. Results of the study generated four themes that connected to the topic of research and contributed to answering the research questions: physical proximity, touch, attend/attune/accept, and presentation. Exploring Attachment Bonds Between Kindergarten Students and Educators: A Creative Appreciative Inquiry adds to the current body of literature by offering a new methodological approach in raising the voices of students and their educators to the fore of the topic discourse while also highlighting new considerations for building educator-child relationships that have not yet been cited in literature.