DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0272
Introduction: Partnerships with Families in the Early Years, birth-8
Parental involvement, engagement, and partnerships within the early years have become key policy directions in many countries in recent years (see the separate
Oxford Bibliographies article in Education Family Policy and Its Relation to Early Childhood). Since the early 2000s there has been a global push to include guidelines for educators that focus on the engagement and enactment of partnerships with families, especially in the early years. However, the family-educator partnership literature is varied, does not reach consensus on what is meant by “partnership,” and fails to provide a clear definition of parent-family partnerships in early years settings. This lack of a clear definition and the interchangeability of terms used to describe the phenomena creates ambiguity of what authentic partnerships are and often culminates in a deficit approach to the discussion. For example, there is the question of who is visible/invisible? Often there is judging of parents and families on their level of involvement rather than on how the educational setting may be contributing to this sense of disconnect. This article draws on a range of recent international literature that contests and challenges existing paradigms of family-educator partnerships in the early years. It aims to create a space where those working with parents and families of young children can move beyond the position that partnerships, as determined by a school-centric and neoliberal discourse, are only effective when the “visible” is considered. In fact, more recent research has suggested that it is what parents and families do in the home that has the greatest impact on children’s achievement rather than the visible involvement in the early years setting (see the separate