FR 7
12/02
Abstract
National Extension Parenting Educators’ Framework
Prepared by: Elaine
Wilson, Ph.D.
Parenting
Specialist
104
HES, Room 238
OCES,
405-744-7186
(phone); 405-744-1461 (fax)
Source: www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/NEPEF.html
IMPLICATIONS FOR COOPERATIVE EXTENSION. At present, there are many parent educators
who are part of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) of the Cooperative State
Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Cooperative Extension System is one of the principal providers of
parenting education in the
Those who deliver parenting education on
behalf of Cooperative Extension System include county extension educators,
extension-trained volunteers, master teachers, and collaborating agency
personnel. They serve in many venues, including military installations,
faith-based programs, housing developments, schools, and a variety of other
community-based settings. Other collaborating professionals include social
service providers, counselors, educators, medical professionals, psychologists,
and Cooperative Extension educators.
The proposed professional development
framework will facilitate the implementation of the parenting education content
model by extension educators.
The Framework -- In
1994, a team of state family life/human development Extension specialists and
the national program staff at USDA led the development of a model of "what"
to teach parents. Currently, a team of
Cooperative Extension System specialists and the national family life/human
development program leader at CSREES are proposing a framework for melding what
should be taught with the "processes" used to teach parenting education. graphic
2
www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/human/NEPEF.jpg
The NEPEM Content Model thoroughly outlines the core
content areas, fundamental skills, and critical parenting
practices that should be incorporated in parenting education programs. Innovative programs focus on responsible fatherhood,
mentoring teenage mothers, helping grandparents and other relatives raising
children, co-parenting through divorce, court-ordered parent training, and
basic parenting education—the “ages and stages” of child development that
address the needs of children and their families from prenatal development
through adolescence. The original
NEPEM categories—care for self, understand, guide, nurture, motivate, and
advocate--can be found online. www.cyfernet.org/parenting_practices/preface.html
The NEPEF Framework thoroughly outlines professional
development content for parenting educators.
A description of the proposed framework can be found on line.
National Extension Parenting Educators’
Framework (continued)
Content -- NEPEM The model for parenting education
content.
Care for self includes stress
management, managing family resources, getting support from and giving it to
other parents, developing a sense of purpose in parenting, setting
child-rearing goals, and strategies for cooperating with one's child-rearing
partners. Parenting educators also
should be able to recognize and build upon the personal strengths of parents.
Understand includes
knowledge of child development and strategies parents use to recognize how
children influence and respond to what happens around them.
Guide includes knowing
how to engage a child in appropriate, desired behaviors, how to establish and
maintain reasonable limits, how to recognize and provide children with
developmentally appropriate opportunities to learn responsibility, how to
convey fundamental values, how to teach children problem-solving skills, and
how to monitor children's activities with peers and adults.
Nurture includes
teaching appropriate expressions of affection and compassion; fostering
children's self-respect and hope; listening and attending to children's feelings
and ideas; teaching kindness; providing for the nutrition, shelter, clothing,
health, and safety needs of children, and helping children feel connected to
family history and cultural heritage.
Motivate includes teaching children about
themselves, others, and the world around them; stimulating curiosity,
imagination, and the search for knowledge; creating beneficial learning
conditions; and helping children process and manage information.
Advocate is being able to convey to parents the
following skills: how to effectively connect with community resources to
increase the probability that their children and family's needs will be met;
how to find programs, institutions, and professionals that provide services
important to their children and/or family; how to represent their children's
needs to organizations or individuals to build a link between that community
service and the child; and when
policies and procedures
in the community impede children's growth or make it difficult for families to
function, how
to speak up and take action to change those policies.
Process –
NEPEF The framework for professional development
Grow, refers to
personal growth as a professional or knowing oneself and how this affects the
way one relates to others.
Frame, is knowing theoretical frameworks that guide practice in the
field of parenting education.
Develop, is the program
planning and marketing programs to educate parents, and building evaluation
processes that are part of a total educational effort.
Embrace, is recognizing
and responding to differences in ethnicity, family type, and belief systems
among target populations.
Educate, is being an
effective teacher, knowing how to use various delivery methods, helping parents
learn, and challenging them to higher parenting goals.
Build, is reaching
out to build networks, being a community advocate, and connecting organizations
to expand the field of parenting education.
A full discussion of each of these
categories is presented within this document. A handout that
can be used to explain the document is also available.
Referenced web
sites:
National
Extension Parenting Education Model
Review of Literature
for National Satellite Teleconference on parenting education
Framework for planning and
evaluating parenting education programs
Research project exploring
the way in which parents
like to learn about parenting
