Educational relationship at the daycare as a form of positive parenting: contributions from an ethnography in daycare centers in Portugal

ABSTRACT The article is based on an exploratory ethnographic observation in four daycare centers serving children from 3 months to 3 years old in Porto, Portugal. The roadmap for ethnographic observation were the principles of positive parenting. As psychiatrists, concerned with the intergenerational transmission of disorders that affect mental health from childhood onwards, we focus on the interactions of kindergarten teachers and education assistants with children. The aim was to broaden the scope of positive parenting and highlight the importance of its principles in the relationship between education professionals and young children in daycare. The main results highlight that the principles of positive parenting - knowing, protecting and dialoguing with the child - are, in general, present in the daycare centers, although not explicitly stated, and vary according to the educational environment of each daycare center, which is permeable to the children’s social background.