RESUMO
Immigrant parents encounter educational approaches in the host country that differ from what they know and expect from institutional childcare. With our study we would like to contribute to the understanding of these differences. We collected information concerning developmental goals and educational strategies from 151 mothers with children between 0 and 6 years, differing in level of education and ethnic background (German, Turkish, and Russian) and from 36 childcare teachers also of different ethnic origin (German, Turkish, and Russian). Interview and questionnaire data were analysed with qualitative content analysis and inferential statistics. Results indicate that in all childcare teachers prefer autonomy-oriented developmental goals and a constructivist approach to education. More educated German mothers agree widely with the teachers. In contrast, migrant mothers and less-educated German mothers differ significantly from the teacher's perspectives. These mothers prefer developmental goals oriented towards relatedness and a didactic approach to education. They are also more focused on the physical well-being and the bodily integrity of their children. The discrepancies were most striking between childcare teachers and less-educated Turkish and Russian migrant mothers. The results are discussed with respect to the claim of providing equal chances for all children.