Early Childhood Teachers’ Dual Role Dilemma in Parenting Practice: A Reflective Narrative Study Through the TAMARA Program

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-489-1_33How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Reflective Parenting; Preschool Teacher; Parenting Dilemma; Bronfenbrenner

Abstract

Early childhood parenting presents complex challenges for parents who perform dual roles, especially early childhood teachers who must divide their attention between professional work at school and childcare responsibilities at home. This study aims to describe the dual role dilemmas experienced by early childhood teachers and develop strengthened reflective parenting skills through the TAMARA Program (Tough Parenting, Play with Children, Design Parenting Strategies). Using a narrative approach with 44 participants, including 5 in-depth interviews, three main themes were found: (1) the difficulty of balancing multiple roles causing emotional exhaustion; (2) the lack of planning play activities at home despite having the skills to design learning at school; and (3) the high mental burden due to overlapping work and care responsibilities. These findings were analyzed using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory framework that shows how pressures from work, social environment, and family conditions mutually influence parenting practices. The TAMARA program, through narrative reflection and experiential learning, helped participants become more aware of their own conditions, reconstruct a more balanced way of parenting, and better manage their emotions when caring for children at home. The results of this study provide important recommendations for strengthening community-based parenting programs and long-term institutional support for ECE teachers who have dual roles.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Euis Kurniati
AU  - Maryam Nibrosurrahman
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/24
TI  - Early Childhood Teachers’ Dual Role Dilemma in Parenting Practice: A Reflective Narrative Study Through the TAMARA Program
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Science and Teacher Education (ICESTE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 437
EP  - 448
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-489-1_33
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-489-1_33
ID  - Kurniati2025
ER  -