Collaboration
Collaborating with families is next on the continuum of partnering with families. In our experiences as practitioners, we have found that collaboration entails a closer relationship than engagement. Educators and families work together to develop goals and make decisions. Collaborations expand on the individual relationships established when engaging families, uniting many families to work toward jointly identified goals, such as solving a problem or completing a project. The literature in the field of early childhood education rarely separates the ideas of collaborating and engaging. Yet collaboration is important because it has an additional benefit: Developing relationships among families, which can serve as sources of support, information, and friendship. Collaboration requires everyone to share their expertise, knowledge, and skills while understanding and respecting others’ investments. Examples of collaborations include families and teachers reviewing books for the classroom or program library to ensure diverse representation, a team of families and staff redesigning the outdoor play area, or a committee of families and staff interviewing candidates for new positions.
Incorporating Culturally Sustaining Practices
On the family partnership continuum, engaging and collaborating are situated in the context of social justice and incorporate culturally sustaining practices( Alim & Paris 2017).“ Culturally sustaining pedagogy fosters and sustains children’ s linguistic and cultural capabilities— not as deficits but as part of schooling for positive social transformation”( McManus & Colegrove 2023, 7). Relying only on the first components of the continuum, participation and involvement, perpetuates power dynamics in which families are deferential to teachers, who are viewed as the experts( Kambouri et al. 2022; McWayne et al. 2022). Engaging and collaborating with families disrupts this dynamic. Teachers should identify opportunities for families to engage and collaborate, as families may not have experience forming these types of relationships with educational professionals. In our experience, when families engage and collaborate with infant educators, they are more invested in the learning setting and develop skills that they can use with other professionals throughout their children’ s lifetimes. Thus, supporting teachers to engage and collaborate with all families— including culturally and linguistically diverse families and those with various family structures— benefits babies, families, and educators( Jones et al 2020).
Culturally sustaining practices depend on teachers reflecting on their own biases, using their established relationship with the family to discuss the family’ s culture and experiences, and then determining with the family what customs and traditions to honor and embed in the early learning program. In addition, culturally sustaining practices support families to continue to grow in their cultural identities while also supporting them to understand and navigate the dominant culture( Alim & Paris 2017). For example, in the United States, shaking hands, respecting personal space, partnering with teachers, and using play as pedagogy in early childhood are practiced by the dominant culture.
Examples of culturally sustaining practices in infant settings include displaying art from families’ cultures and communities; having books that reflect children’ s home languages and cultures in the classroom or program library; and ensuring that all families have access to communication in the language( s) and formats they feel most comfortable using. We believe these practices also strengthen the self-esteem and identities of every child and family in today’ s early learning programs.
Conclusion
Curriculum in infant settings— which includes individualizing routines and partnering with families— must support the specific interests, preferences, needs, and contexts of infants. Infants require high-quality programming to support the immense growth and development that occur in the first years of life. The focus of infant curriculum must be on meaningful experiences that flow with the patterns of babies’ individual routines. Individualized routines demonstrate respect, responsiveness, and reciprocity when working with babies. Partnering with families through engagement and collaboration enhances the curriculum and the relationships among the baby, teacher, and family.
Summer 2025 Young Children 35