Partnering with Families
Nicole and Denise have ordered some new picture books for their infant class, which includes several children whose families speak Mandarin. The teachers want to know the Mandarin words for the key ideas and images in the books so that they can support the infants’ language development. They invite families to record themselves reading the books in Mandarin. After sharing the recordings, families ask if they can also share songs, lullabies, and Chinese instrumental music they play at naptime at home. Nicole and Denise eagerly agree.
relationship-based practice with infants. Mentalizing involves being curious about another person’ s mental state, or what they are thinking and feeling( Fonagy & Campbell 2016; Campbell et al. 2024). Caring, attentive adults work to understand a baby’ s internal world, mirror that understanding to the baby, and then respond appropriately. When sensitive adults engage in such mentalization with an infant, it enables the baby to later develop the ability to mentalize with others. It also supports the development of self-control, affect regulation, and interpersonal relationships( Fonagy & Campbell 2016; Campbell et al. 2024). Infant teachers mentalize when they wonder what is causing a baby to cry, ask the baby,“ Why are you crying?” in a concerned tone, and talk through the possible causes while identifying the baby’ s needs.
To effectively implement individualized routines, educators partner with families to learn about each infant’ s preferences, interests, needs, and contexts. These partnerships with families are an important aspect of high-quality infant curriculum.
A high-quality infant curriculum recognizes that babies cannot be separated from the context of their families. Partnering with families is crucial in infant settings, as families are the experts on their children. However, partnering is not one process, but a continuum of processes. This continuum moves from participation to involvement to engagement to collaboration. Most staff and families need training to effectively engage and collaborate with each other( Knight-McKenna et al. 2019; Jones et al. 2020; Kambouri et al. 2022). The most effective joint training occurs when it is offered to families and educators together( Kambouri et al. 2022). As outlined in the following sections, engagement and collaboration are situated in social justice and incorporate culturally sustaining practices.
Participation
Family participation is the first step in the continuum of partnering with families and is often where teachers focus their efforts. Participation holds teachers as the experts and dictates how families can participate in a classroom or program( Ferlazzo 2011). Information is shared from school to home rather than reciprocally( McWayne et al. 2022). Examples of family participation include families supporting fundraisers, families attending program-sponsored sleep training workshops, or a teacher informing a family when to transition an infant to solid food. We believe that focusing primarily on participating perpetuates a power differential between teachers and families as well as a one-size-fits-all view of families.
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