Communication of Preschool Teachers with Parents and Children During the Pandemic

This paper presents the results communication relations of preschool teachers with parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the theoretical part, we present the importance of cooperative relations between preschool teachers and parents, the increasing use of ICT technology and the ways in which preschool teachers communicate with parents and children during distance education. In the empirical part, we present the results of a survey conducted on a sample of 100 preschool education professionals from all over Slovenia. We found that most respondents attribute significant importance to communication and cooperation with parents. However, there are also some for whom these relationships are not necessary. We also found that during the closure of kindergartens, preschool teachers most often communicated with children once or twice a month. At the same time, they point out that this way of interaction with children is inappropriate and incomparable to live interaction. Additionally, we found that preschool teachers continued to communicate with parents in similar ways as before the pandemic, with increased communication via phone conversations, e-mail and the kindergarten's website. In contrast, the frequency of parental meetings, office hours and information on bulletin boards decreased.